THE  REORGANIZATION 
OF   OUR   COLLEGES 


BY 


CLARENCE   F.  BIRDSEYE 

AUTHOR  OF 
"INDIVIDUAL  TRAINING   IN  OUR   COLLEGES" 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


NEW  YORK 

THE   BAKER   &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 
1909 


GENERAL 

(    C- 


COPYRIGHT,  1909,  BY 
CLARENCE  F.   BIRDSEYE 


Published,  February,  1909 


THE  TROW  PRESS,  NEW  YORK,  U.  S.  A. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

PART   I 
SHALL  WE  REORGANIZE  OUR  COLLEGES? 

CHAP.  I.  From  What  Standpoint  Shall  We  Consider  Re- 
organization?    3 

CHAP.     II.      Do  the  Colleges  Need  Reorganization?        .       .  12 

CHAP.  III.  What  Shall  Be  the  Objectives  of  the  Reorgan- 
ized College  and  of  Its  Course?  ...  14 

CHAP.    IV.      Of  What  Departments  Does  the  College  Consist?  21 

PART   II 
THE  STUDENT  LIFE  DEPARTMENT 

CHAP.        V.    The  College  Now  a  Quasi  Public  Corporation— 

Not  a  School  Based  Upon  the  Home       .        .       35 
CHAP.      VI.    The  Relation  of  the  College  to  the  Common- 
wealth      51 

CHAP.    VII.    The  Student  Life  Department  and  the  College 

Community  Life 61 

CHAP.  VIII.    The  College  Community  Life — Continued  .       .       75 

CHAP.     IX.    The  College  Home  Life 90 

CHAP.       X.    The  Greek-Letter  Fraternities  and  the  College 

Home 96 

CHAP.     XI.    The  College  Home  and  College  Vices  .        .       .118 
CHAP.    XII.    The  Dominant  Position  of  the  Student  Life  De- 
partment         146 

PART   III 

THE  SEPARATE  ADMINISTRATIVE  DEPARTMENT 

CHAP.  XIII.  The  Science  of  Administration  and  the  Func- 
tions of  the  Administrative  Department  .  165 

CHAP.  XIV.  Administration,  Discipline  and  Order  in  the 

Earlier  Colleges 181 


VI 


Table  of  Contents 


CHAP.  XV. 

CHAP.  XVI. 

CHAP.  XVII. 

CHAP.  XVIII. 

CHAP.  XIX. 

CHAP.  XX. 

CHAP.  XXI. 

CHAP.  XXII. 

CHAP.  XXIII. 

CHAP.  XXIV. 

CHAP.  XXV. 

CHAP.  XXVI. 

CHAP.  XXVII. 

CHAP.  XXVIII. 

CHAP.  XXIX. 

CHAP.  XXX. 


How  Shall  We  Reorganize  the  College?  The 
New  Primary  Unit 185 

The  Nature  of  Business  Administration  and 
Administrative  Departments  .  .  .  200 

Bookkeeping  and  Accounting  in  the  Reorgan- 
ized College 215 

The  Use  of  Blank  Forms  in  the  Reorganized 
College 223 

Study  and  Care  of  Its  Plant  by  the  Reorgan- 
ized College — The  College  Inventory 


How  the  Reorganized  College  Will  Study  Its 
Field 


235 


240 


The   Marking   System  in   the   Reorganized 

College 245 

Studying  the  College  Waste  Heap         .        .  258 

Examinations  in  the  Reorganized  College    .  266 
Discipline  in  the  Reorganized  College  .        .270 

The  Waiting  List  in  the  Reorganized  College  275 
Advertising  and  the  Publicity  Bureau  in  the 

Reorganized  College 280 

Standardization  and  Uniformity  in  the  Re- 
organized College 289 

Some  Final  Suggestions  as  to  the  Adminis- 
trative Department 297 

The  Relation  of  Administration  to  the  Stu- 
dent Life  in  the  Reorganized  College        .  307 
The  President  in  the  Reorganized  College  .  313 


PART  IV 

SUMMING  UP 

CHAP.  XXXI.  The  Motto  and  Ideal  of  the  Reorganized 

College 325 

CHAP.  XXXII.  Resume.  The  Keynote  of  the  Reorganized 

College 331 

CHAP.  XXXIII.  Can  We  Have  a  New  Form  of  American 

College  and  University?  ....  367 

APPENDIX 375 


PREFACE 

MANY  years  ago  an  eminent  physician  said  to  me: 
"The  medical  profession  know  substantially  nothing 
about  diphtheria,  and  can  save  but  a  small  percentage 
of  the  stricken.  Like  other  physicians,  I  am  treating 
the  disease  empirically,  experimenting  first  with  one 
remedy  and  then  with  another,  hoping  that  eventually 
something  will  be  found  which  will  reduce  the  terrible 
fatality.  I  prescribe  the  latest  proposed  remedy,  not 
knowing  whether  it  will  meet  the  case — for  we  are  grop- 
ing in  the  dark." 

Recently  another  physician  said  to  me:  "We  dread 
diphtheria  less  than  almost  any  other  disease  if  treated 
in  time;  for  since  it  has  been  found  to  be  a  germ  disease, 
and  its  antitoxin  prepared,  the  things  which  were  for- 
merly inexplicable  have  become  perfectly  plain." 

During  the  past  seven  years,  as  I  have  studied  college 
problems  from  the  standpoint  of  undergraduates  in 
whom  I  was  personally  interested,  I  have  been  con- 
stantly and  forcibly  impressed  with  the  close  resem- 
blance which  the  present  attitude  of  college  educa- 
tors and  authorities  as  to  their  problems  bears  to  the 
former  attitude  of  physicians  as  to  diphtheria.  I  have 
found,  also,  that  the  fatalities  of  the  college  course  have 
been  great,  and  often  inexplicable,  and,  to  my  mind, 
inexcusable;  for  those  fatalities  have  been  largely 

vii 


viii  Preface 

mental  and  moral,  in  institutions  from  which  such  re- 
sults should  not  be  expected.  Meanwhile  the  college 
treatment  has  been  strictly  empirical,  the  educators 
have  been  "  groping  in  the  dark,"  experimenting  upon 
the  characters  and  futures  of  splendid  young  men,  and 
prescribing  first  one  remedy  and  then  another,  hoping 
that  something  would  be  found  to  reduce  the  fatality; 
and  attempting  thus  to  meet  conditions  which  they  had 
never  correctly  diagnosed  and  hence  did  not  under- 
stand. From  the  beginning  I  have  felt  that  there  must 
be  some  reasonable  and  sufficient  explanation  for  the 
entire  change  in  college  conditions  and  results;  for  the 
remarkable  growth  of  fraternities,  intercollegiate  ath- 
letics and  other  things  which  did  not  complicate  and 
upset  the  earlier  college,  but  which  have  played  havoc  in 
recent  years;  and  that  when  these  things  were  under- 
stood a  remedy  would  also  be  found.  Hence  I  have 
been  trying  to  discover  and  indicate  the  nature  of  the 
trouble  and  its  location  in  the  college  body,  and  to  sug- 
gest a  general  method  of  treatment — an  antitoxin — 
capable  of  effecting  a  cure  if  taken  in  time  and  in  the 
right  way. 

Those  who  prepared  the  diphtheria  antitoxin  did 
not  thereby  become  the  only  ones  who  could  cure 
the  disease.  They  merely  made  plain  how  physicians 
should  treat  their  cases.  In  like  manner,  if  we  can 
locate  the  causes  of  the  college  trouble  and  point  out 
the  general  treatment,  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  show 
earnest,  thoughtful  and  learned  educators  just  how  they 
must  apply  the  remedy  in  cases  arising  under  their 
own  peculiar  surroundings.  As  never  before,  our  col- 


Preface  ix 

leges  to-day  possess  a  wealth  of  endowment,  and 
teaching  ability,  and  earnestness,  and  loyalty  and  self- 
sacrifice.  Yet  all  these  have  proved  largely  impotent 
and  even  self-destructive,  because  the  colleges  have 
been  "groping  in  the  dark";  but  can  be  made  effective 
if  the  colleges  can  be  taught  how  to  locate  and  diagnose 
their  troubles. 

The  college  course,  like  diphtheria,  must  continue 
to  claim  some  victims,  and  largely  because  they  are  not 
"treated  in  time";  but  we  may  hope  greatly  to  decrease 
the  fatality  and  improve  general  results  if  we  can  stop 
the  "groping  in  the  dark"  and  the  experimenting,  and 
walk  with  certain  step  through  evils  which  we  do  not 
fear,  since  we  thoroughly  understand  them  and  their 
nature. 

CLARENCE  F.  BIRDSEYE. 

NEW  YORK,  February  i,  1909. 


PART  I 

SHALL  WE  REORGANIZE  OUR 
COLLEGES? 


THE  REORGANIZATION  OF  OUR 
COLLEGES 

CHAPTER  I 

FROM     WHAT     STANDPOINT     SHALL     WE     CONSIDER 
REORGANIZATION? 

NOT  long  ago  a  candid  and  thoughtful  professor  in 
one  of  our  smaller  colleges,  after  a  discussion  of  some 
of  the  crudities  of  the  present  college  administration  as 
they  appear  to  a  business  man,  asked:  "If  you  had  the 
opportunity  to  reorganize  our  colleges,  upon  what  plan 
would  you  proceed?" 

This  simple  question  presented  an  old  subject  in  an 
entirely  new  light,  and  the  answer  was  instant:  "  Along 
the  lines  of  the  best  modern  corporate  reorganizations; 
with  the  same  objects,  by  the  same  methods,  and  avail- 
ing ourselves  of  similar  human  agencies,  but  all  adapted 
to  college  conditions."  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  we 
have  been  familiar  with  business  and  corporate  re- 
organizations. The  law  governing  them  is  well  under- 
stood, and  the  great  profession  of  the  certified  public 
accountant,  at  first  based  upon  the  experience  of  the 
English  chartered  accountants,  has  largely  grown  out 
of  the  reorganizations  and  consolidations  which  have 
included  more  than  ninety  per  cent  of  our  railroad 
mileage  and  substantially  all  our  great  trusts  and 

3 


4  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

business  and  manufacturing  concerns.  Furthermore, 
these  reorganizations  and  consolidations  have  been 
largely,  especially  as  to  their  legal  features,  under  the 
charge  of  college  men  who  have  been  familiar  with 
every  detail. 

If,  then,  our  colleges  can  be  reorganized  upon  sub- 
stantially the  lines  with  which  we  are  conversant  in 
business  and  corporate  affairs,  we  shall  have  two  de- 
cided advantages:  first,  we  can  make  use  of  well-estab- 
lished principles  which  have  been  worked  out  at  infinite 
cost  of  time  and  money  by  our  great  captains  of  in- 
dustry— whose  thinking  and  doing  run  side  by  side — 
and  by  the  lawyers,  accountants  and  business  assistants 
whom  they  have  called  to  their  aid;  and,  second,  since 
many  of  the  leaders  of  this  great  army  of  skilled  re- 
organizers  are  college  men,  and  hence  more  or  less 
experts  in  college  affairs,  their  services  can  be  made  as 
directly  available  in  the  affairs  of  Alma  Mater  as  in 
those  of  a  railroad  or  business  corporation.  Moreover, 
almost  every  large  institution  of  higher  learning  has 
upon  its  board  of  trustees  the  chief  of  some  great  and 
well-organized  business  concern.  If  these  men  can  be 
made  to  appreciate  that  their  own  college  needs  their 
aid  in  reorganizing  her  affairs  along  the  very  lines  with 
which  they  are  familiar  in  their  own  business,  at  least 
we  shall  have  found  competent  and  sympathetic  ex- 
perts and  advisers  acquainted  -alike  with  local  con- 
ditions and  with  modern  business  methods. 

This  book,  then,  is  intended  to  lift  college  reorganiza- 
tions to  the  plane  of  the  best  with  which  we  are  familiar 
in  the  business  world;  for  often  college  ideals  and  re- 


The  Standpoint  oj  Reorganization  5 

suits  are  far  below  the  best  business  practice  and 
results.  The  former  are  frequently  crude,  incomplete 
and  unsatisfactory,  while  the  latter  are  increasingly 
systematic  and  scientific.  But  if  we  are  to  follow  busi- 
ness methods  we  must  thoroughly  analyze  our  subject 
to  make  sure  that  there  is  a  necessity  for  reorganization; 
that  there  are  important  and  permanent  objects  to  be 
gained  thereby;  that  there  are  causes  responsible  for 
present  conditions  which  can  be  removed;  and  that 
there  are  methods  which  have  proved  sufficient  in  other 
fields  to  solve  similar  problems  arising  from  substantially 
the  same  causes  and  agencies  and  applicable,  with  proper 
modifications,  to  college  affairs. 

To  understand  how  such  methods  can  be  applied  in 
our  colleges,  we  must  analyze  business  conditions  and 
processes  so  that  we  may  comprehend  their  results  in 
other  fields  and  judge  of  their  applicability  in  the 
college  field. 

In  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges"  I  at- 
tempted to  show  the  history,  content  and  purposes  of 
our  older  colleges,  and  the  evils  and  shortcomings  of  our 
present  institutions  arid  their  lack  of  system  and  fore- 
sight— all  from  the  standpoint  of  the  undergraduate, 
who  is  either  the  victim  of  this  lack  of  system  or  the 
victor  notwithstanding  it;  or,  as  a  distinguished  United 
States  senator  once  said:  "I  love  my  Alma  Mater  for 
all  that  she  has  enabled  me  to  be  and  to  do  in  spite  of 
her."  Much  of  the  earlier  book  is  germane  to  the 
present  discussion,  but  repetition  will  be  avoided  with 
care,  and  reference  made  only  when  absolutely  necessary. 

Many    matters    herein    considered    are    applicable 


6  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

chiefly  to  the  undergraduates  of  the  college  proper,  and 
not  to  those  who  are  in  the  graduate  schools,  although 
it  is  not  always  easy  to  draw  the  line ;  for  the  distinction 
between  our  colleges  and  universities,  never  very  clear, 
becomes  constantly  more  and  more  complicated  in  fact, 
when  judged  from  the  standpoint  of  the  undergraduate. 
On  the  one  hand  we  find  one  Southern  university,  so 
called,  advertising  that  it  "prepares  young  men  and 
women  for  college,"  and  on  the  other  we  discover  that 
even  the  Association  of  American  Universities  has  no 
very  definite  notion  of  what  should  qualify  an  institu- 
tion to  become  a  member  of  the  Association.  At  first 
it  "made  the  existence  of  a  strong  graduate  department 
the  sole  condition  of  membership."  But  the  report  of 
its  Committee  on  Membership  made  in  1907  recom- 
mends that  professional  courses  shall  be  preceded  by  at 
least  one  year  of  college  work.1 

Yet  only  eighteen  institutions  have  been  found  eligible 
for  membership  upon  a  not  too  strict  enforcement  of 
such  easy  qualifications — leaving  at  least  175  more  of 
our  so-called  universities  which  cannot  yet  comply  with 
the  conditions  for  membership  thus  laid  down.  In 
other  words,  in  this  matter  there  is  but  little  in  the  name. 
We  must  frankly  admit  that  with  us  the  words  "  college" 
and  "university"  have  no  fixed  and  definite  meaning 
and  can  convey  no  exact  notion  of  the  content  or  cur- 
riculum of  any  institution  of  whose  official  name  they 
form  a  part 

"As  was  pointed  out  in  the  Second  Annual  Report  of  the 
President  of  the  Foundation,  the  words  'college'  and  'uni- 

1  See  Appendix  No.  I. 


The  Standpoint  of  Reorganization  7 

versity '  have  no  well  settled  meaning  in  America,  nor  is  the 
sphere  of  higher  education  by  any  means  carefully  denned. 
As  a  result  the  degree-giving  institutions  in  these  countries 
present  every  variety  of  educational  and  administrative 
complexity.  Even  the  well-informed  educator  is  apt  to 
speak  of  our  colleges  and  universities  as  if  they  formed  a 
homogeneous  species  conforming  more  or  less  clearly  to 
some  typical  condition.  Not  only  is  this  not  the  fact,  but 
these  institutions  do  not  even  fall  into  any  definite  number 
of  such  species.  There  is  no  method  of  classification  which, 
when  applied  to  the  thousand  American  and  Canadian  de- 
gree-conferring institutions,  will  enable  the  student  to  divide 
them  into  clear  species.  Whatever  criterion  is  chosen  will 
result  in  placing  some  institutions  in  company  to  which  they 
are  not  entitled  to  belong."  * 

The  illustrations  of  the  valuelessness  of  any  ordinary 
methods  of  comparison  are  given  at  length  in  the 
Bulletin.  For  these  see  Appendix  No.  II.  The  eco- 
nomic losses  arising  from  this  lack  of  uniformity,  and 
the  lessons  to  be  drawn  from  it,  will  be  considered  in 
Chapter  XXVI,  where  I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to 
the  adverse  influence  of  this  uncertainty  upon  all  edu- 
cational interests.  It  is  sufficient  at  this  time  to  point 
out  how  this  lack  of  uniformity  complicates  the  prob- 
lems of  the  reorganizer.  At  least  eighty  per  cent  of 
our  students  are  in  institutions  with  more  or  less  of 
graduate  courses — institutions  which  are  already  uni- 
versities or  are  putting  on  the  university  garb,  as  they 
understand  it.  Moreover,  in  the  university  there  is  a 
constant  tendency  to  shift  the  center  of  the  academic 
community  from  the  arts  faculty  (college)  to  the  pro- 
fessional or  graduate  schools,  and  we  must  have  a  plan 

1  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching,  Bulle- 
tin No.  Two,  p.  i. 


8  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

of  reorganization  flexible  enough  to  cover  such  con- 
stantly changing  conditions.  For  example,  within 
twelve  years  the  proportion  of  college  students  of  the 
University  of  Michigan  has  altered  from  about  fifty  per 
cent  of  the  whole  to  about  thirty-five  per  cent. 

The  subject  is  further  complicated  by  the  fact  that 
the  state  universities  are  growing  relatively  much  faster 
than  the  private  institutions,  which  have  long  been  and 
still  are  the  standards  by  which  too  many  persons, 
especially  at  the  East,  judge  all  our  institutions  of 
higher  learning. 

Shortly  before  his  death,  President  W.  R.  Harper,  of 
Chicago  University,  expressed  it  as  his  opinion  that  "no 
matter  how  liberally  the  private  institution  might  be 
endowed,  the  heritage  of  the  future,  at  least  in  the  West, 
is  to  be  the  state  university." 

The  following  comparison  shows  how  rapid  is  this 
gain  of  the  state  universities: 

1896-7     1906-7       Increase 

Attendance  at  15  State  universities 16,414   34,770        112% 

Attendance  at  15  representative  Eastern  col- 
leges and  universities 18,331  28,631  56% 

Increase  of  attendance  during  same  period 
in  representative  private  institutions  in  the 
Middle  West ' 58% 

But  these  figures  may  be  misleading.  The  dean  of 
an  important  Western  university  writes: 

"  In  large  part  this  increase  is  due  to  the  new  lines  of 
work.  The  state  university  is  becoming  more  and  more  a 
department  store,  to  which  new  counters  are  added  as  often 
as  anyone  suggests  an  attractive  line  to  offer.  Compared 
to  the  Eastern  institutions,  within  equivalent  courses,  I 
doubt  if  there  has  been  as  great  increase  in  numbers.  Cer- 

1  President  MacLean,  of  Iowa  State  University,  before  Presidents' 
Meeting,  October  31,  1907. 


The  Standpoint  oj  Reorganization  9 

tainly  the  great  increase  in  the  Middle  West  private  institu- 
tions has  been  due  in  good  part  to  the  addition  of  music 
schools,  special  courses,  etc.  The  old  time  work,  or  culture 
courses,  have  grown  in  the  state  universities  and  the  Western 
private  institutions  far  less  than  is  believed." 

Furthermore,  the  rapid  growth  and  improvement  of 
the  public  high  school  and  the  development  of  the 
technical  schools  add  other  elements  of  complication. 
At  the  same  time  our  colleges  are  often  trying  to  vie  in 
scientific  equipment  with  the  state  universities  and  the 
technical  schools. 

Because  of  these  and  other  variances,  it  is  quite  im- 
possible to  draw  a  clear  distinction  between  the  college 
and  the  university  so  far  as  relates  to  the  conditions 
which  surround  each  student.  Therefore  I  shall  use 
the  word  "college"  in  its  generic  sense,  as  applying  to 
those  students  who  are  getting  their  higher  education 
under  conditions  and  surroundings  which  are  essen- 
tially comprehended  within  the  term  "college  life,"  as 
distinguished  from  those  men  who  are  pursuing  a  pro- 
fessional or  technical  course  divorced  from  anything 
like  true  college  conditions  or  surroundings.  In  this 
large  sense  the  surroundings  of  the  graduate  and  pro- 
fessional students  living  and  working  in  a  college  town 
and  in  or  around  a  campus  may  approximate  more 
nearly  to  college  conditions  than  do  those  of  the  under- 
graduates of  an  urban  college  which  has  no  campus, 
or  well-organized  athletics,  or  other  student  activities 
which  tend  to  weld  the  student  body  into  a  sympathetic 
and  homogeneous  mass.  Hence  the  word  "college" 
will  be  used  to  apply  to  those  students,  no  matter  what 
their  course,  who  are  living  more  or  less  under  college 


io  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

conditions  and  surroundings,  as  those  words  are 
familiarly  used;  and  the  words  "college"  and  "uni- 
versity" will  often  be  used  interchangeably. 

These  very  great  differences  between  our  institutions 
of  higher  learning  have  several  constant  and  important 
bearings  upon  any  proposed  reorganization. 

First.  There  can  be  no  safe  generalizations  based 
upon  our  present  knowledge  of  prevalent  conditions. 
The  isolated  and  unconnected  reports  upon  the  student 
situation  which  have  been  made  by  various  institutions 
are  largely  worthless  for  scientific  use,  because  the 
underlying  conditions  of  the  particular  institution  are 
not  clearly  set  forth  so  that  we  can  judge  of  their  real 
applicability  to  other  institutions,  or  even  to  that  insti- 
tution at  some  other  period.  In  other  words,  we  have 
no  scientific  and  reliable  data  comprehensive  enough  to 
cover  the  widely  varying  conditions  of  which  we  have 
just  spoken.  For  this  reason  any  reorganization  must 
be  largely  tentative,  halting  and  incomplete,  for  it  must, 
in  considerable  part,  be  founded  upon  its  own  investi- 
gations and  statistics  to  be  made  in  the  future.  To  be 
of  scientific  rather  than  of  local  value,  these  investiga- 
tions must  be  made  hereafter  along  the  same  lines  and 
at  the  same  time  in  widely  scattered  institutions,  so 
that  the  local  and  underlying  elements  may  be  taken 
into  account  in  the  final  generalizations. 

Second.  Not  only  are  there  many  kinds  of  institu- 
tions, but  there  are  as  many  grades  of  excellence  in 
each  kind.  Some  are  doing  splendid  work  in  their  own 
line,  and  others  are  equally  weak  or  even  vicious;  and 
there  are  all  degrees  between  these  extremes.  Some 


The  Standpoint  oj  Reorganization  n 

colleges  are  strong  in  one  set  of  influences  which  tend 
to  turn  out  well-rounded  graduates,  and  at  the  same 
time  lamentably  lacking  in  others.  Hence  the  reor- 
ganizer  must  make  a  careful  study  of  local  elements  of 
weakness  and  strength  before  he  can  safely  proceed 
far  with  his  plans. 

Third.  As  will  be  more  fully  shown  hereafter,  these  mat- 
ters are  largely  outside  of  the  realm  of  pure  pedagogy. 

Fourth.  Not  all  the  things  complained  of  in  this 
book  are  true  of  any  one  institution,  although  they  are 
in  part  true  of  almost  all.  Yet  it  does  not  follow  that 
because  they  are  not  true  in  one  institution  or  class  of 
institutions  they  are  not  true  in  others.  Nor  does  it  fol- 
low that  because  an  institution  is  not  affected  by  one  set 
of  evils  it  may  not  be  grossly  wanting  in  other  respects. 

For  this  very  reason  the  use  of  names  will  usually  be 
avoided.  Otherwise  grave  injustice  might  be  done  to 
some  splendid  institution  by  calling  attention  to  a  fault 
which  it  happens  to  illustrate,  while  failing  to  give  it 
credit  for  its  many  excellencies.  Moreover,  it  does  not 
follow  that  any  conditions,  good,  bad  or  indifferent,  are 
permanent  in  any  particular  college.  Nothing  is  more 
striking  than  this  constant  local  change  within  a  com- 
paratively short  period.  Hence  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  conditions  which  prevailed  a  few  years  ago  may 
be  of  very  little  value  in  determining  the  present  situ- 
ation. Above  all,  let  us  beware  how  we  judge  of 
prevalent  conditions  by  those  which  we  knew  even  in 
the  recent  past,  or  of  the  general  situation  by  that 
which  exists  in  our  own  Alma  Mater  as  we  think  that 
we  know  it. 


CHAPTER  II 

DO  THE   COLLEGES  NEED   REORGANIZATION? 

No  evidence  as  to  the  necessity  of  a  radical  reorgani- 
zation of  our  colleges  is  required,  for  it  is  a  basic  rule 
of  law  that  no  proof  need  be  given  as  to  that  which  is 
admitted  or  not  denied. 

Our  college  authorities,  without  exception,  admit  the 
need  of  some  reorganization,  especially  in  other  insti- 
tutions than  their  own.  As  individuals  they  may  differ 
as  to  details,  but  they  agree  that  something  is  very 
wrong.  But  the  men  who  have  come  closest  to  the  life 
of  the  students,  and  have  pondered  most  carefully  upon 
student  problems,  admit  at  once  the  truth  of  the  arraign- 
ment of  college  shortcomings,  and  then,  with  startling 
earnestness,  point  out  further  evils  and  suggest  new 
lines  of  thought  to  which  attention  had  not  previously 
been  drawn.  Before  we  finish  we  shall  find  plenty  of 
evidence  to  prove  that  a  reorganization  is  imperative. 

But  if  there  be  such  a  need  of  reorganization,  then 
the  failure,  long  ago,  to  grapple  with  the  evils  which 
must  every  day  be  adversely  affecting  the  lives  of  the 
best  of  the  rising  generation,  and  to  analyze  them 
thoroughly,  and  force  a  solution  of  them,  is  one  of  the 
terrible  crimes  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

This  need  of  reorganization  is  as  well  recognized 
abroad  as  it  is  here.  The  London  Times,  in  an  edi- 
torial in  April,  1907,  said: 

12 


Is  Reorganization  Needed?  13 

"  The  two  ancient  universities  are  once  again  on  trial  and 
cannot  escape  the  obligation  of  putting  their  house  in  order. 
They  will  be  given  reasonable  time  for  self-examination  and 
self-reform.  Failing  in  this,  there  will  be  an  exhaustive 
inquiry  and  drastic  compulsion  from  without." 

We  need  not  search  far  for  the  chief  reasons  why 
college  conditions  are  unsatisfactory  and  a  reorganiza- 
tion is  desirable.  We  readily  understand  that  no  great 
business  can  be  successful  where  not  more  than  one  of 
its  five  or  six  chief  constituent  departments  is  properly 
conducted,  where  another  is  theoretically  but  not 
actually  successful,  and  where  the  others  are  misunder- 
stood and  neglected.  It  makes  no  difference  how  well 
the  manufacturing  department  is  run,  if  there  are  no 
proper  shipping,  sales  or  credit  bureaus;  nor  how  good 
an  operating  force  a  railroad  may  have,  if  its  repair  or 
auditing  or  financial  bureaus  are  not  sharply  differen- 
tiated and  properly  managed.  Yet  this  is  the  mistake 
which  the  colleges  are  making;  and  their  unaccountable 
failure  to  organize  and  coordinate  all  of  their  great  de- 
partments and  to  make  each  do  its  full  duty  is  the  chief 
reason  why  they  need  a  reorganization.  No  one  of 
their  departments  can  do  its  best  work  if  the  others  are 
not  doing  their  full  share  to  make  the  whole  institution 
do  its  great  duty. 

The  colleges  must  continue  to  be  inherently  weak  so 
long  as  they  do  not  provide  for  a  proper  and  complete 
correlation  and  coordination  of  all  their  activities  and 
forces,  whether  financial,  pedagogical,  administrative, 
executive,  or  relating  to  the  personal  lives  of  the  students. 


CHAPTER   III 

WHAT  SHALL  BE  THE  OBJECTIVES  OF  THE  REORGANIZED 
COLLEGE  AND   OF  ITS  COURSE? 

BEFORE  we  can  proceed  far  we  must  agree  upon  the 
objects  that  we  are  to  hold  steadily  in  view,  and  for 
which,  if  necessary,  we  are  to  sacrifice  old-fashioned 
methods  and  ways,  and  every  unimportant  notion,  no 
matter  how  well  intrenched,  which  will  hinder  us  in  a 
satisfactory  reorganization. 

Let  us  agree,  then,  if  we  can,  that  the  objectives  of 
the  college  course,  as  distinguished  from  the  objects  of 
the  institution,  are: 

(i)  The  individual  training  of  the  students,  to  make 
them,  as  nearly  as  may  be,  clean,  cultured,  forceful  and 
resourceful  solvers  of  the  problems  which  will  arise  in 
their  relations  (a)  to  the  state  and  to  their  fellows  in 
the  community,  (b)  to  their  own  families  and  those 
otherwise  personally  dependent  upon  them,  and  (c)  to 
their  own  higher  moral,  religious,  intellectual  and  phys- 
ical natures.  In  other  words,  the  college  course  is 
primarily  to  enable  the  young  student  to  find  himself 
and  to  train  him  for  efficient  citizenship  in  the  broadest 
sense  of  the  word;  and  not  primarily  for  scholarship, 
or  athletics  or  social  polish.  To  be  sure,  every  ado- 
lescent who  comes  under  Alma  Mater's  fostering  care 

14 


The  Objectives  oj  the  Reorganized  College       15 

needs,  in  a  varying  degree,  to  be  trained  in  scholarship, 
physical  efficiency  and  manly  graces,  but  the  college 
course  should  stand  first  of  all  for  making  each  student 
an  all-around  and  forceful  member  of  the  community 
in  his  future  years. 

(2)  Not  for  present  stuffing,  but  for  training  the  in- 
dividual so  that  he  shall  acquire  the  habit,  power  and 
desire  to  grow  and  develop,  mentally  and  morally,  what- 
ever his  future  surroundings  may  be. 

(3)  To  cast  aside  mere  studying  for  a  diploma,  or 
rank,  or  marks,  or  any  other  temporary  or  counterfeit 
aims,  and,  even  if  the  student  be  but  going  into  busi- 
ness, to  build  for  studious  and  scientific  training  and 
character. 

(4)  And  hence  to  train  in  the  broadest  way  for  the 
all-around  man,  for  the  mens  sana  in  sano  corpore,  and 
not  be  content  with  a  physique  which,  because  of  neg- 
lect on  the  one  hand  or  of  overtraining  or  overstraining 
on  the  other,  cannot  meet  the  demands  of  modern  con- 
ditions and  competitions. 

These  great  objects  and  purposes  must  be  molded 
into  the  very  grain  and  essence  of  each  institution,  so 
that  they  shall  be  a  vital  part  of  the  college  atmosphere 
which  each  student  must  breathe.  No  influence  is  un- 
important which  can  hinder  or  help  these  great  objec- 
tives, and  every  such  influence  must  be  studied,  and,  if 
necessary,  dealt  with  by  a  separate  department  thor- 
oughly equipped  for  that  very  purpose. 

Our  colleges  are  but  a  part  of  the  great  social  and 
economic  structure  of  the  nation  and  community  and 
governed  largely  by  the  same  rules  and  principles,  which 


1 6  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

therefore  must  be  strictly  studied  and  wisely  followed 
if  the  colleges  would  attain  to  their  highest  usefulness. 
Hence  the  colleges  owe  it  as  a  first  duty  to  their  students 
to  work  out  their  own  economic,  sociological  and  do- 
mestic problems,  quite  as  much  as  to  study  these  sub- 
jects only  as  they  relate  to  the  submerged  tenth  or  some 
other  portion  of  the  general  community. 

These  objectives  of  the  college  course,  that  is,  as  to 
the  college  results,  are  not  essentially  different  from  those 
governing  a  well-organized  factory  or  business  estab- 
lishment. Although  in  the  eyes  of  the  public  they  may 
not  stand  upon  so  high  a  moral  plane  as  the  colleges, 
there  are  many  business  corporations  which  in  fact  get 
better  results  and  more  honest  work  and  have  higher 
ethical  and  moral  standards  for  the  individual  than 
many  colleges;  and  the  difference  in  results  arises  from 
the  difference  in  administrative  methods  and  ideals. 
Some  of  the  ways  in  which  our  college  administration 
falls  fatally  behind  that  of  an  ordinary  business  corpo- 
ration will  be  pointed  out  in  succeeding  chapters,  with 
suggestions  as  to  changes  to  be  instituted  in  the  colleges 
in  those  regards. 

We  must  never  allow  ourselves  to  mistake  a  college 
diploma  for  a  true  college  education,  or  a  college  degree 
for  college  training.  As  we  proceed  I  shall  use  the 
words  "college  education"  and  "college  training"  in 
the  broad  sense  of  an  education  and  training  for  citizen- 
ship, and  as  comprehending,  therefore,  those  elements 
of  scholarliness,  culture,  physical  strength  and  prowess, 
and  pleasing  manners,  which  must  be  added  to  the 
character  of  each  student  in  order  to  make  him  in 


The  Objectives  o\  the  Reorganized  College       17 

future  years  strong,  efficient,  cultured  and  clean  to  the 
top  of  his  bent.  We  shall  see  that  it  is  just  this  de- 
velopment, nothing  less,  which  the  college  owes  to 
everyone  to  whom  she  gives  her  diploma. 

Surely  we  can  all  agree  that  it  is  only  by  keeping 
these  objectives  as  to  the  college  course  clearly  before 
us  that  we  can  hope  to  make  the  most,  mentally, 
morally,  physically  and  individually,  of  the  student 
material  which  enters  the  doors  of  the  college,  or  to  turn 
out  such  material  developed  to  the  highest  degree  to 
make  the  best  use  of  its  powers  in  its  future  work  in  life. 

A  clear  exposition  of  what  the  university  or  college 
itself  should  stand  for  is  found  in  the  report  submitted 
on  February  i,  1908,  to  the  faculty  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege by  Dr.  James  H.  Canfield,  after  a  three  months' 
trip  to  examine  personally  the  methods  of  teaching  and 
of  discipline  (intellectual  and  other)  which  are  in  use 
in  the  upper  classes  or  forms  of  typical  English  public 
schools,  of  English  grammar  schools  and  of  French 
Lyce*es;  and  in  the  first  and  possibly  the  second  year  of 
residence  in  colleges  and  universities  of  both  England 
and  France — in  other  words,  corresponding  in  the 
main  with  the  freshman  and  sophomore  years  in  our 
colleges: 

"All  modern  educational  ideals  center  in  a  movement 
which  seeks  more  complete  and  efficient  employment  of  all 
human  gifts  and  powers,  all  natural  forces  and  all  material 
resources,  in  behalf  of  national  advancement  and  well-being; 
by  which,  of  course,  is  meant  the  advancement  and  well- 
being  of  every  person  within  the  nation.  It  is  an  educational 
ideal  which  makes  for  peace,  prosperity,  and  true  renown; 
which  believes  that  the  greatness  of  a  state  can  always  be 


1 8  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

more  accurately  measured  by  the  greatness  of  its  teachers 
than  by  the  number  of  its  regiments,  by  its  scholars  rather 
than  by  its  squadrons.  Education  which  does  not  recog- 
nize this  movement  and  has  not  this  end  in  view,  which  does 
not  distinctly  accept  this  as  its  supreme  motive,  is  neither 
public  nor  large  nor  sound  nor  enduring.  Every  educational 
undertaking,  from  kindergarten  to  most  advanced  research, 
will  be  tried  under  this  law,  and  will  be  approved  only  as 
it  meets  this  standard.  The  world  seems  to  have  finally 
determined  that  it  has  little  or  no  time  or  strength  to  spend 
on  mere  abstractions;  it  demands  that  very  definite  and 
helpful  relations  shall  be  discovered  and  maintained  in  all 
forms  of  human  life  and  endeavor. 

"Prince  Metternich  wisely  said,  'All  reforms  begin  at 
the  top.'  The  university,  then,  must  be  the  leader  in  this 
great  undertaking.  Leadership  is  its  right  and  its  duty, 
its  privilege  and  its  opportunity.  To  forfeit  this  for  any 
reason  whatever  is  simply  to  fall  from  grace,  to  substitute 
weakness  for  strength,  to  cease  to  give  an  adequate  reason 
for  existence.  .  .  .  Every  university  must  set  itself  the  task 
of  satisfying  three  classes  of  demands  and  aspirations: 
those  of  the  nation,  the  people  at  large;  those  of  the  students 
who  attach  themselves  to  the  institution,  and  in  a  certain 
sense  those  of  all  who  hope  to  have  the  advantages  of  higher 
education;  and  those  of  its  officers.  These  are  given  in 
what  is  believed  to  be  their  order  of  importance,  though  it  is 
not  easy  to  create  this  distinction.  But  the  general  welfare 
certainly  stands  first,  though  so  indissolubly  linked  with  in- 
dividual welfare  that  the  two  can  scarcely  be  considered 
apart.  The  students  are  given  precedence  of  the  officers, 
because  it  is  mainly  for  the  purpose  of  their  education  that 
colleges  are  maintained,  their  time  is  short,  they  have  but 
one  chance  for  preparation  for  active  life,  and  they  are  the 
coming  generation;  while  the  officers  as  a  body  either  hold 
the  center  of  the  stage  or  have  already  begun  to  retire  slowly 
toward  the  exits.  The  true  university  is  not  merely  a  place 
where  a  lad  may  get  an  education,  but  is  a  seat  of  wisdom  and 
learning.  To  this  wisdom  and  learning,  willing  to  serve 
(which  is  the  first  condition  of  all  leadership)  the  nation 
turns  with  a  demand  for  leadership.  .  .  .  The  students 


The  Objectives  oj  the  Reorganized  College       19 

need,  and  very  generally  desire,  effective  instruction  and 
stimulating  companionship,  and  reasonable  preparation  for 
life.  They  cannot  receive  the  first  unless  their  instructors 
of  every  grade  possess  remarkable  strength  of  character, 
unusual  mental  equipment,  careful  and  thorough  prepara- 
tion, unceasing  industry,  unflagging  zeal,  alert  and  com- 
pelling consciences,  large  unselfishness  and  active  sympa- 
thy. Whole  men  and  wholesome  men,  men  who  are  sane 
and  strong,  men  who  are  broadly  informed  as  well  as  pos- 
sessing advanced  special  training,  men  who  are  carrying 
some  share  of  the  public  burden,  men  who  are  making 
themselves  and  their  work  felt  in  the  world  about  them; 
these  are  the  true  Masters  of  Arts,  no  matter  what  other 
degree  they  may  carry.  .  .  .  The  needs  and  demands  of 
worthy  officers  constitute  the  third  form  of  drain  upon  the 
resources  and  strength  of  the  university  corporation.  What 
these  men  ask  is  opportunity  to  discover  truth  and  oppor- 
tunity to  impart  it.  The  first  means  equipment  of  every 
kind:  books,  apparatus,  laboratories,  assistants — and  a  fair 
amount  of  time  for  the  proper  and  effective  use  of  these. 
The  second  means  a  well-arranged  curriculum,  within  which 
a  student  can  move  with  considerable  freedom  of  choice,  thus 
bringing  together  the  largest  possible  number  of  both  teach- 
ers and  taught;  with  the  further  provision  that,  by  that  form 
of  organization  which  will  throw  the  least  possible  burden 
of  administration  upon  officers  of  instruction,  idle,  ignorant, 
unworthy  students  may  be  either  quickly  reformed  or  as 
quickly  withdrawn  from  troublesome  and  impeding  contact 
with  the  true  life  of  the  university." 

In  other  words,  our  colleges  and  universities  should 
keep  their  own  ideals  high  and  should  turn  out  clean, 
strong  problem  solvers,  thereby  recognizing  and  ful- 
filling their  duties  to  the  state,  to  their  founders,  to  their 
own  officers  and  to  their  students.  Anything  short  of 
this  is  failure.  I  shall  go  further  and  show  that  the 
college,  even  the  private  college,  is  now  a  distinct  agent 
of  the  commonwealth  and  as  such  has  direct  duties  to 


2O  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

perform  for  the  state.  But  throughout  our  discussion 
let  us  keep  in  mind  the  distinction  between  the  objects 
of  the  college  and  those  of  its  course,  between  the  in- 
stitution and  the  individuals  who  for  the  time  adminis- 
ter its  affairs  or  give  or  receive  its  benefits. 


CHAPTER  IV 

OF  WHAT  DEPARTMENTS  DOES  THE   COLLEGE 
CONSIST? 

WE  must  next  consider  whether  all  the  forces  and  de- 
partments of  the  colleges  have  heretofore  been  properly 
differentiated,  studied  and  organized,  and  whether  each 
and  all  are  doing  their  full  part  to  effectuate  the  objects 
of  the  institution  and  of  its  course. 

For  practical  purposes  the  college  activities  may  be 
roughly  divided  into  six  great  departments  or  classes :  (a) 
finances,  (b)  instruction  or  pedagogy,  (c)  administra- 
tion, (d)  the  executive,  (e)  the  trustees  or  board  of  con- 
trol, under  whatever  name,  and  (/)  the  student  life,  or 
that  portion  (about  ninety  per  cent)  of  the  undergradu- 
ates' time  not  spent  in  recitations,  lectures  or  other  per- 
sonal contact  with  their  instructors.  The  student  life 
must  be  further  subdivided  into  the  college  community 
life  and  the  college  home  or  family  life. 

(a)  The  financial  department  is  often  smoothly  run 
by  experts  who  are  not  pedagogues,  and  is  out  of  sight  and 
therefore  out  of  mind,  except  in  the  treasurer's  annual 
report.  It  will  not  require  much  attention  in  this  dis- 
cussion. Its  chief  lesson  to  us  is  that  it  is  the  only  de- 
partment whose  cleavage  from  the  others  is  sharp  and 
distinct.  It  is  successful  largely  because  no  other  de- 
partment feels  warranted  to  interfere  in  its  affairs.  Its 

21 


22  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

duties  and  limitations  are  well  defined  and  respected, 
and  its  results,  if  it  is  on  a  real  business  basis,  are  cor- 
respondingly satisfactory. 

There  should  be  no  difficulty  in  having  a  perfect 
financial  system  in  any  college  if  the  finances  are  under 
the  charge  of  a  well-trained  business  man.  The  book- 
keeping problems  are,  up  to  the  present  time,  of  the 
simplest  nature,  mere  cash  accounts  with  no  cost  ac- 
counting or  other  intricate  questions.  Hence  it  is 
nothing  to  boast  of  if  the  books  are  well  kept,  and  it 
is  something  to  be  ashamed  of  if  they  are  not  so  kept. 
Some  institutions  have  placed  their  bookkeeping  in  the 
hands  of  skilled  accountants,  who  turn  out  model 
annual  reports,  showing  full  trial  balances,  balance 
sheets,  detailed  statements  of  receipts,  disbursements 
and  investments,  and  have  frequent  audits  of  accounts 
and  verification  of  cash  and  securities.  In  such  in- 
stances, at  least,  we  can  perceive  how  satisfactorily  the 
best  modern  business  methods  can  be  applied  in  college 
affairs.  In  the  state  universities  there  must  be  a  full 
annual  accounting  to  the  state,  including  the  sum 
paM  to  each  professor,  etc.  Our  private  institutions 
may  be  roughly  divided  in  this  regard  into  those  whose 
books  and  accounts  are  open  and  those  which  consider 
themselves  the  closest  kind  of  private  corporations  of 
whose  financial  affairs  practically  nothing  is  known, 
especially  in  detail,  except  to  a  few  of  those  in  control, 
who  are  frequently  unable  and  often  unwilling  to  un- 
derstand bookkeeping  and  a  cost  account.  In  this  re- 
spect the  reorganizer  can  make  many  improvements 
both  for  efficiency  and  true  economy.  I  shall  consider 


The  Departments  oj  the  College  23 

at  its  proper  place  the  question  of  the  extension  of  the 
functions  of  the  financial  department,  so  as  to  embrace 
a  cost-account  system  for  the  college  factory,  a  thing 
practically  unknown  at  the  present  time. 

(b)  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  at  length  the  in- 
structional or  pedagogical  department.  In  the  first 
place,  the  topic  is  a  dangerous  one  for  a  layman  to 
handle,  especially  where,  as  in  the  present  case,  it 
might  lead  us  away  from  our  subject.  Moreover,  there 
is  the  widest  divergence  of  opinion  as  to  the  merits 
among  admitted  experts.  While  undoubtedly  some  of 
our  greatest  teachers  have  been  and  still  are  found  in 
college  faculties,  there  are  many,  well  qualified  to  judge, 
who  insist  that  as  a  whole  college  pedagogy  is  at  present 
the  poorest  of  all  grades.  The  principal  of  one  of  our 
finest  fitting  schools  recently  gave  me  the  following 
reasons  for  this  assertion.  He  told  of  a  dean  of  a  well- 
known  law  school  who  said  to  one  of  his  second-year 
students  who  was  doing  very  poor  work:  "I  know  of 
your  preparatory  school  training  and  that  you  easily 
stood  at  the  head  of  'your  class.  I  also  know  your 
father  and  that  he  is  a  very  painstaking  and  studious 
lawyer.  Why  is  it,  then,  that  you  are  not  doing  better 
work  in  your  law  studies?"  The  young  man  replied: 
"To  tell  the  truth,  studious  habits  will  not  survive  a 
four  years'  college  course  nowadays."  The  principal 
insisted  that  this  had  been  the  case  with  altogether  too 
many  others  of  the  very  brightest  boys  that  he  had  sent 
to  college  during  the  past  fifteen  years;  that  these  boys 
had  been  allowed,  under  college  teachers,  to  degenerate 
like  this  young  law  student,  and  that  this  would  not 


24  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

have  happened  in  so  large  a  proportion  of  such  cases  if 
the  average  college  instructor  understood  and  applied 
the  principles  of  pedagogy  as  the  teachers  in  our  best 
kindergartens,  and  primary,  grammar  and  high  schools 
are  now  required  to.  Unfortunately,  high-school  prin- 
cipals and  parents  can  cite  too  many  examples  to  sus- 
tain their  complaint.  Judged  by  this  standard,  college 
pedagogy  is  too  frequently  a  miserable  failure,  with 
terrible  after  results  to  the  state,  the  individual  student 
and  the  reputation  of  all  higher  learning. 

Looking  at  these  charges  against  the  quality  of  college 
pedagogy  from  the  standpoint  of  a  business  man,  I  am 
convinced  that  they  are  largely  true,  and  I  argue  it  out 
in  about  this  fashion :  Every  entering  class  is  carefully 
looked  over  by  the  college  coaches  and  trainers  for 
available  candidates  for  football,  base  ball,  track  and 
other  teams,  rowing  crews,  etc.,  and  when  such  men 
are  found  they  are  carefully  trained  in  every  detail  of  the 
sport.  So  in  many  colleges  every  entering  freshman  is 
carefully  canvassed  by  the  various  fraternities,  and  if  he 
is  available  he  is  made  a  member,  and  immediately  en- 
ters into  a  course  of  careful  training,  under  competent 
fraternity  coaches,  to  make  him  an  honor  to  the  fra- 
ternity. This  belongs  to  the  college  home  life  as  we 
shall  see.  Yet  I  cannot  now  remember  any  college 
where  there  are  pedagogical  coaches  who,  to  the  like 
extent,  canvass  every  entering  freshman,  to  get  his 
measure  as  a  student  and  to  make  sure  that  he  knows 
how  to  study;  and  if  not,  whose  duty  it  is  to  teach  him 
the  fine  points  of  the  college  training  in  their  pedagogi- 
cal department.  Such  coaching,  if  given  at  all,  is  left 


The  Departments  oj  the  College  25 

to  the  student  life  department  and  is  widely  and  effi- 
ciently performed  therein.  Why  not  in  the  pedagogical 
department  if  its  standards  are  high? 

This  is  not  theoretical.  For  many  years  I  have 
known  intimately  every  freshman  who  entered  my  own 
chapter  of  my  fraternity.  Their  ability  to  study  and 
keep  up  has  been  carefully  canvassed  by  the  upper 
classmen,  and  some  freshmen  have  been  found  who 
practically  did  not  know  how  to  study,  but  who  ear- 
nestly wished  to  learn.  Yet  the  college  provides  no 
pedagogical  coach,  and  the  luckless  freshman,  who  may 
not  appreciate  his  own  weakness,  must  turn  to  the  upper 
classmen  for  help.  In  too  many  colleges  the  pedagogi- 
cal formula  is  "root,  freshman,  or  die"  by  the  " busting 
out"  process.  Yet  many  institutions  spend  almost  or 
quite  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  annually  upon 
athletics  which  are  largely  the  coaching  and  training 
of  a  few  likely  athletic  candidates.  Good  pedagogical 
practice  would  seem  to  demand  that  the  college  itself 
should  spend  at  least  one  fifth  of  this  amount  in  coach- 
ing and  training  its  freshmen  in  the  things  which  would 
make  them  better  material  for  their  instructors  to  work 
upon  in  the  later  years. 

But  as  I  said  before,  this  is  dangerous  ground  for  a 
layman.  The  shortcomings  of  college  pedagogy  and 
pedagogical  methods  have  been  carefully  and  fairly 
discussed  by  many  experts  in  books  and  reviews.  The 
latest  is  "The  American  College:  A  Criticism,"  by 
Abraham  Flexner,  whose  stringent  criticisms  from  the 
pedagogical  side  are  apparently  fully  justified. 

But  it  seems  to  me  that  the  fault  lies  not  so  much  with 


26  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

college  pedagogy  as  with  the  failure  to  draw  a  sharp 
distinction  between  pure  pedagogy  and  the  other  de- 
partments of  the  college.  Our  mental  confusion  as  to 
the  functions  of  the  departments  of  pedagogy  and  ad- 
ministration, and  our  utter  neglect  to  study  and  elevate 
the  student  life  department  are  chiefly  responsible  for 
the  present  pedagogical  ineffectiveness  and  meager  edu- 
cational results.  But  until  the  conditions  are  radically 
changed  college  pedagogy  must  continue  to  have  a  dis- 
proportionately large  number  of  such  failures  charged 
to  its  account. 

(c)  There  are  some  promising  patches  of  adminis- 
tration, some  hopeful  beginnings,  in  some  institutions, 
but  there  is  no  such  thing  in  any  college  as  an  up-to-date 
and  separate  administrative  department  comprehen- 
sively covering  all  parts  of  the  institution.  Yet  when 
this  is  said  to  a  college  professor  he  looks  dazed  and 
asks:  "Well,  what  do  you  mean  by  college  administra- 
tion, and  how  could  you  improve  upon  what  we  have 
here?"  The  answer  is  not  difficult:  "Wipe  off  the 
slate,  and  commence  over  again.  Few  college  pro- 
fessors have  the  least  notion  of  what  modern  adminis- 
tration means  or  accomplishes,  and  therefore  in  most 
cases  they  cannot  reorganize  their  present  attempts  at 
administration.  The  college  must  learn  about  the 
real  article,  and  then  build  from  the  very  bottom  upon 
the  foundation  of  this  new  ideal  of  a  separate  adminis- 
trative department.  The  present  system  has  shown 
its  insufficiency  by  the  pass  to  which  it  has  brought  the 
college  and  its  reputation  and  the  reputation  of  college 
pedagogy.  It  is  easier,  safer  and  cheaper  to  build 


The  Departments  oj  the  College  27 

anew  than  to  patch  up."  These  may  seem  harsh  words, 
but  they  will  appear  mild  before  we  have  completed  our 
exposition  of  what  business  administration  is  and  does, 
and  what  the  college  administration  is  not,  and  what  it 
fails  to  accomplish.  In  Part  III,  I  shall  show  how  the 
modern  business  administrative  department  has  grown 
up  and  what  are  its  functions,  what  it  has  done  and  is 
doing,  and  how  indispensable  it  has  become;  and  also 
how  the  college,  as  a  whole  and  in  each  of  its  parts,  is 
handicapped  by  the  failure  to  provide  an  up-to-date 
administrative  department  along  the  lines  of  an  or- 
dinary manufacturing  concern  dealing  with  a  like  num- 
ber of  men  and  with  interests  correspondingly  diverse. 

(d)  I  shall  postpone  the  discussion  of  the  college 
executive  department  until  Chapter  XXXIII.     By  that 
time  we  shall  have  studied  the  reorganized  college  in 
detail,  and  be  better  able  to  understand  the  functions 
and  duties  of  its  executive. 

(e)  Nor  shall  I  treat  at  length  of  the  board  of  trustees 
or  board  of  control  in  the  scores  of  different  forms  in 
which  it  appears.    Its  powers  and  duties  are  usually 
defined  by  statute  or  charter  and  cannot  be  easily 
modified.    For  an  excellent  discussion  of  this  subject 
the  reader  is  commended  to  Chapter  II  of  "College 
Administration,"  by  Dr.  Charles  F.  Thwing,  President 
of  Western  Reserve  University  and  Adelbert  College, 
The  Century  Company,  1900. 

(/)  The  student  life  comprehends  about  ninety  per 
cent  of  the  undergraduate's  time,  and  the  instructional 
department  the  remaining  ten  per  cent.  That  is  to  say, 
the  average  student  does  not  spend  ten  per  cent  of  his 


28  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

whole  year  in  direct  touch  with  his  teachers.  There  are 
1 68  hours  in  the  week,  and  usually  the  college,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  technical  or  graduate  school,  does 
not  advise  an  undergraduate  to  carry  more  than  five 
courses  of  three  hours  each  per  week.  Often  only  four 
such  courses  are  required.  Thus,  without  cuts  or 
cations,  ten  per  cent  with  the  professors  is  a  good 
average,  and  frequently  these  hours  may  be  spent  in 
lecture  courses  chosen  to  produce  the  least  possible 
draft  upon  the  student's  attention  in  the  lecture  room 
or  upon  his  time  outside  of  it. 

We  should  have  expected  that  this  ninety  per  cent 
would  be  carefully  analyzed  and  studied  by  the  teachers 
whose  work  in  the  ten  per  cent  must  be  greatly  affected 
by  the  influences  that  govern  the  ninety  per  cent.  At 
least  that  would  have  been  done  by  a  business  concern. 
Assume  that  A  and  B,  two  boys  of  equal  capabil 
are  in  school  together  and  that  A  is  kept  strictly  and 
wisely  at  his  home  work  by  his  parents,  and  compelled 
to  attend  to  his  school  duties;  while  B  is  given  the  use 
of  an  automobile  and  is  allowed  to  put  all  kinds  of  out- 
side distractions,  or  even  vices,  ahead  of  his  school 
duties.  Under  these  circumstances  the  teacher,  with 
one  half  as  much  exertion,  accomplishes  twice  as  much 
with  A  as  B.  Hence  the  home  factors  of  A  to  B  are  as 
four  to  one.  This  is  precisely  what  is  going  on  in  all 
our  colleges.  The  ninety  per  cent  of  the  student  life  has 
been  and  still  is  ignored  and  not  studied,  and  the  in- 
structors wonder  why  the  effectiveness  of  their  teaching 
is  about  one  quarter  of  what  it  ought  to  be.  They 
have  not  thought  out  the  true  nature  of  the  student  life, 


The  Departments  oj  the  College  29 

nor  its  effect  upon  their  own  work,  nor  the  way  to  reach 
and  affect  it.  But  if  we  are  to  bring  about  a  reorganiza- 
tion along  modern  business  lines  we  must  know  all 
about  this  student  life  department  and  its  bearing  upon 
the  other  factors  of  our  problem,  and  determine  how  it 
is  to  be  handled  in  the  future.  These  things  will  be 
treated  in  Part  II. 

Because  all  of  these  departments  (except  the  board 
of  trustees)  were  originally  almost  exclusively  under  the 
direct  personal  control  of  the  college  president,  and  be- 
cause in  the  lower  schools  the  instructor  is  the  disci- 
plinarian, and  because  we  still  think  of  our  colleges  as 
modeled  after  the  home  and  not  after  the  community, 
we  cling  tenaciously  to  the  notion  that  there  is  some  in- 
herent connection  between  instruction  and  the  college 
administration,  and  that  a  trained  pedagogue  must  have 
charge  of  the  discipline  and  administration.  This  is 
essentially  fallacious  and  wasteful.  In  our  reorganized 
institution  we  shall  recognize  that  our  college  pedagogy 
should  now  be  pedagogy  pure  and  simple,  as  in  the 
nan  universities,  and  provide  accordingly.  We 
shall  also  understand  that  few  of  our  questions  of  ad- 
ministration are  essentially  pedagogical.  Most  of  these 
are  the  problems,  requiring  systematic  organization, 
which  arise  wherever  there  is  a  clashing  of  the  diverse 
interests  of  large  numbers  of  persons  working  in  a 
common  pursuit,  whether  under  a  great  business,  man- 
ufacturing or  quasi  public  corporation,  or  in  an  army 
or  navy,  or  in  any  other  great  aggregation  of  men. 

Until  recently  the  numbers  in  our  colleges  were  very 
small  and  hence  there  were  very  few  and  simple  ad- 


30  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

ministrative  questions  to  solve.  At  the  end  of  her  first 
125  years  Harvard's  classes  numbered  hardly  twenty- 
five  members  each.  In  1850  (212  years)  she  had  286 
undergraduates,  while  Princeton  had  232  and  Columbia 
179.  At  the  same  time  the  simple  social  conditions, 
and  the  lack  of  surplus  wealth  and  of  facilities  for 
travel,  and  the  absence  of  large  cities  made  all  problems 
of  living  comparatively  simple.  We  shall  perceive  that 
it  is  not  lack  of  teaching  forces  or  ability,  but  numbers 
and  size  and  intricacy  and  failure  to  understand  the 
basic  change  in  our  college  concept  which  are  upsetting 
our  college  economy. 

As  we  proceed  in  our  investigations  we  shall  realize 
that  our  present  need  of  reorganization  in  large  part 
comes  from  the  fact  that,  quite  outside  of  pedagogical 
conditions,  the  administration  is  terribly  crude,  un- 
scientific and  insufficient,  and  that  the  student  life  is 
too  often  neglected,  unstudied  and  misunderstood,  and 
the  executive  hampered,  and  that  true  financial  economy 
and  system  are  disregarded,  and  that  no  satisfactory  re- 
sults can  be  expected  while  there  is  such  a  lack  of 
intelligent  coordination. 

Within  the  last  generation,  the  science  of  medicine 
has  been  immensely  improved,  and  trained  nursing 
has  become  a  science.  Candid  physicians  admit  that 
trained  nursing  is  now  more  than  half  the  battle  and 
that  medicine  would  not  be  what  it  is  without  the  aid  of 
the  trained  nurse.  What  modern  medicine  would  have 
been  without  trained  nursing  can  be  seen  in  modem 
college  teaching,  for  it  has  not  perceived  that  adminis- 
tration, and  especially  the  student  life,  should  have 


The  Departments  oj  the  College  31 

stood  in  the  same  relation  to  it  that  nursing  does  to 
medicine.  But  instead  of  being  such  aids,  the  admin- 
istrative and  student  life  departments  actually  have 
been  clogs.  They  are  dead  weights  which  pedagogy 
has  been  dragging  behind  it,  while  it  wondered  that, 
at  a  time  when  its  teachers  were  admittedly  improving, 
the  results  upon  the  students  were  more  and  more  un- 
satisfactory. 

Pedagogy  is  the  skilled  physician  who  handles  many 
and  diverse  cases,  but  administration  and  the  student 
life  are  the  departments  which  have  charge  of  the  in- 
dividual patients  outside  of  the  times  of  the  physician's 
visits,  and  which  insure  the  best  results  from  those 
visits.  The  doctor  has  charge  of  the  case,  but  he  has 
many  other  patients  and  duties,  and  must  have  the  ser- 
vices of  skilled  assistants  or  nurses  who  can  insure  that 
his  instructions  are  followed  and  who  can  have  charge 
of  the  individual  patients  during  the  intervals  between 
visits.  In  earlier  days  the  instructor  lived  in  the 
college  family  or  college  home,  but  not  so  now.  As 
modern  medicine  is  largely  dependent  upon  modern 
nursing,  so  the  highly  specialized  pedagogues  of  our 
modern  colleges  will  be  found  ta  need  the  services  of  an 
agency  which  supplements  their  work  and  makes  it 
effective.  For  her  first  century  and  a  quarter  Harvard 
assigned  a  tutor  to  each  class,  who  taught  that  class  in 
all  its  subjects  for  four  years,  subject  to  the  small 
amount  of  additional  instruction  given  by  the  president 
and  the  one  or  more  professors.  When  the  college  was 
thus  administered  there  was  no  need  of  any  supple- 
mentary coaching  for  the  pedagogues. 


32  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

Our  chief  need  in  reorganizing  is  to  resuscitate,  re- 
construct and  make  potent  these  two  great  departments 
of  administrative  and  student  life,  now  dead  and  useless 
— or  worse — and  to  restore  the  executive  to  its  normal 
functions. 


PART   II 
THE  STUDENT   LIFE  DEPARTMENT 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    COLLEGE    NOW    A    QUASI    PUBLIC    CORPORATION — 
NOT  A   SCHOOL   BASED   UPON  THE  HOME 

IN  a  tract  entitled  "Looking  Backward,"  Helen 
Hunt  Jackson  showed  how  the  Indian  pappoose, 
carried  on  its  mother's  back  and  always  looking  back- 
ward, saw  things  not  as  they  approached  but  only 
after  they  had  passed  and  were  receding,  and  that  this 
was  the  plight  of  the  whole  Indian  race  under  our 
criminally  wrong  system  of  wardship. 

In  our  colleges  the  poor  old  pedagogical  mother  is 
still  lugging  two  strapping  infants  who,  looking  back- 
ward, exhaust  her  strength  and  make  her  less  efficient 
in  the  duties  which  she  is  best  suited  to  perform,  while 
their  own  education  and  growth  are  as  constantly 
stunted.  The  powers  and  efficiency  of  pedagogy  will 
be  doubled  by  the  growth  of  one  of  these  children,  ad- 
ministration, to  the  strength,  work  and  duties  of  an 
adult.  The  same  is  as  true  of  the  other  child,  the 
student  life.  When  it,  too,  shall  have  been  developed, 
we  shall  have  the  efficiency  and  general  usefulness  of 
the  college  augmented  by  two  splendid  powers  which 
will  work  with  the  enthusiasm  of  youth  toward  the  com- 
mon good,  but  especially  toward  the  solution  of  the 
new  questions  of  administration  and  of  the  internal  and 
organic  content  of  the  student  life.  These  new  de- 

35 


36  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

partments  must  together  assume  the  solution  of  many 
things  which  pedagogy  has  long  since  abandoned  in 
despair — although  she  has  not  always  realized  this,  nor 
frankly  confessed  it  even  if  she  did  realize  it.  The 
college  as  a  whole,  the  individual  undergraduates — for 
whom,  in  fact,  it  was  organized  and  exists — and  the  cause 
of  higher  education,  citizenship  and  scholarship  must 
suffer  until  the  departments  of  administration  and  the 
student  life  exercise  their  proper  functions. 

This  leads  us,  then,  to  the  careful  study,  first,  of  the 
student  life,  so  that  we  may  understand  its  essentially 
dual  nature,  its  real  place  in  the  college  economy  and  in 
the  education  of  the  embryo  citizen,  and  the  steps 
necessary  under  our  reorganization  plan  to  put  this 
powerful  factor  in  condition  to  do  its  great  part  in 
college  work;  and,  second,  of  the  separate  administra- 
tive department. 

But  before  we  can  understand  the  present  meaning 
of  these  departments  we  must  fully  realize  the  change 
that  has  taken  place  in  the  very  nature  of  the  college 
itself.  It  is  still  spoken  of  as  merely  an  educational  in- 
stitution, and  thus  is  put  upon  a  par  in  our  minds 
with  the  ordinary  school  or  with  the  earlier  college. 
This  was  true  in  the  old  boarding-school-ecclesiastical 
periods  when  the  college  was  a  small  poverty-stricken 
aggregation  of  teachers  and  taught,  which  had  no  funds 
of  its  own  to  supply  its  constantly  increasing  wants,  but 
was  largely  dependent  for  money  upon  the  Colonial 
legislature,  with  its  politico-religious  notions,  and 
which  derived  the  mass  of  its  pupils  from  private 
schools  or  tutors  and  not  from  a  public-school  system. 


The  College  a  Quasi  Public  Corporation        37 

But  now  many  universities  and  colleges  are  powerful 
and  rich  corporations,  with  rights,  properties  and  funds 
guaranteed  under  the  broadest  charters  and  often  under 
the  terms  of  the  state  constitution.  Several  universities 
have  property  enough  to  pay  in  full  the  debt  of  any 
state  in  the  Union,  except  Massachusetts,  or  of  any  city, 
except  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Pittsburgh, 
Chicago  or  Cleveland;  and  the  yearly  receipts  and  ex- 
penditures of  many  of  the  states  fall  far  below  those  of 
some  of  the  rich  corporations  which  we  call  colleges  or 
universities. 

Hence  we  must  come  to  realize  that  these  great  in- 
stitutions no  longer  resemble  the  school  after  which  they 
were  originally  modeled,  but  have  grown  and  developed 
into  a  new  form  of  state  or  community,  and  should  be 
thought  of  rather  as  bodies  politic  than  as  bodies  cor- 
porate. They  have  the  following  characteristics, 
among  others,  of  a  political  or  municipal  community 
or  corporation:  (a)  a  fixed  location  or  boundary  within 
urhich  their  power  is  substantially  supreme;  (b)  rights 
guaranteed  by  law,  and  often  by  the  state  constitution, 
beyond  the  control  of  even  the  state  legislature;  (c) 
large  investments  in  fixed  improvements,  for  public,  not 
private,  uses;  (d)  large  annual  incomes  devoted  to  public, 
not  private,  purposes ;  (e)  the  right  to  tax  for  their  own 
general  purposes  those  who  dwell  within  their  borders 
and  share  their  benefits;  yet  (/)  relief  in  large  part  from 
the  taxation  of  their  own  property;  (g)  a  lack  of  power 
to  compel  any  individual  to  remain  within  their  sphere 
of  influence;  yet  (h)  the  right  to  lay  down  rules  to 
govern,  within  certain  limitations,  the  personal  lives  and 


38  The  Reorganization  o)  Our  Colleges 

actions  of  their  student  citizens,  who,  so  long  as  they  re- 
main students,  have  well-defined  rights  and  duties  toward 
the  college  state  or  community,  their  fellow-students 
and  their  college  homes,  which  relations  resemble 
closely  those  of  the  citizen  of  any  ordinary  community 
or  state.  The  colleges  are  not  charitable  or  business 
corporations  any  more  than  the  state  or  community, 
which  also  have  many  charitable  and  business  functions. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  now  our  great  universities  and 
colleges  much  more  closely  resemble  municipal  cor- 
porations (using  the  word  "municipal"  in  the  broad 
sense  of  a  state,  or  of  a  city  or  some  lesser  governmental 
corporation  within  the  state)  than  they  do  any  other 
form  of  corporate  existence  or  entity  known  to  the  law. 
Hence  it  will  be  profitable  at  this  point  to  follow  out 
this  analogy  to  its  legitimate  conclusions,  for  it  may 
very  seriously  affect. the  plans  which  we  must  pursue  in 
order  to  bring  about  a  scientific  and  permanent  reor- 
ganization. 

This  change  of  form,  from  that  of  a  private  corpo- 
ration to  one  which  is  quasi  public,  is  not  unique  nor 
confined  to  the  colleges,  but  is  something  which  is  going 
on  all  the  time  and  with  which  we  are  fully  acquainted 
in  other  instances.  For  example,  our  first  railroad 
charter  was  granted  as  a  part  of  a  well-defined  policy 
which  the  State  of  New  York  had  been  carrying  out  for 
a  generation  in  developing  her  lines  of  internal  com- 
munication, and  was  closely  modeled  after  the  turnpike 
company  charters  of  which  several  hundred  had  been 
already  granted.  The  new  road  was  intended  to  be 
merely  a  private  corporation  owning  and  keeping  in 


The  College  a  Quasi  Public  Corporation        39 

order,  for  use  by  all  comers,  a  turnpike  with  fixed  rails, 
and  was  given  the  right 

"to  regulate  the  time  and  manner  in  which  goods  and  pas- 
sengers shall  be  transported,  taken  and  carried  on  the  same, 
as  well  as  the  manner  in  which  they  shall  collect  all  tolls 
and  dues  on  account  of  transportation  and  carriage,  and 
shall  have  power  to  erect  and  maintain  toll  houses  and  other 
buildings  for  the  accommodation  of  their  concerns  as  they 
may  deem  suitable  to  their  interest;" 

also, 

"from  time  to  time  to  fix,  regulate  and  receive  the  tolls  and 
charges  by  them  to  be  received  for  transportation  of  prop- 
erty and  persons."1 

Shortly  thereafter  twelve  further  charters  were 
granted  by  the  New  York  legislature  under  which  other 
roads  were  built;  and  these  roads,  then  ten  in  number, 
were  consolidated  in  1853  to  form  the  New  York  Cen- 
tral Railroad,  running  from  Albany  to  Buffalo  and 
Niagara  Falls,  with  a  total  mileage  of  about  400  miles 
of  single  track. 

These  poverty-stricken  turnpike  railroads  were  not 
a  menace  to  the  state.  They  had  no  political  or  finan- 
cial power.  They  were  experimental  innovations  and 
suppliants,  and  had  not  yet  become  the  most  powerful 
entity  in  the  state,  arrogantly  exclaiming  (as  did  the 
head  of  this  system  in  later  years):  "The  people  be 
damned.  We'd  rather  carry  hogs  than  people." 

The  gradual  changes  by  which  these  quasi  turnpike 
railroads,  seldom  over  thirty  miles  in  length,  have  de- 
veloped into  the  huge  modem  trunk  line  are  substan- 
tially the  same  as  those  by  which  our  primitive  colleges 

>N.  Y.  Laws  of  1826,  Chap.  253. 


40  The  Reorganization  0}  Our  Colleges 

have  developed  into  our  huge  modern  universities.  As 
the  years  have  passed  the  railroads  have  ceased  to  be 
private  concerns  and  have  assumed  more  and  more  the 
character  of  public  corporations,  exercising  exclusive 
franchises  received  from  the  state.  They  have,  with 
other  similar  corporations,  grown  into  a  class  by  them- 
selves, which  for  want  of  a  better  name  we  call  public- 
service  or  public-utilities  corporations. 

In  precisely  the  same  way,  and  without  our  realizing  it, 
the  colleges  have  changed,  in  fact  and  in  law,  to  quasi 
municipal  corporations  with  a  closer  resemblance  to  the 
state  or  community,  in  their  duties,  rights,  powers  and 
content,  than  to  anything  else;  and  with  these  new 
powers  have  developed  new  responsibilities. 

In  following  out  this  resemblance  it  will  be  found, 
also,  that  the  relations  which  the  citizen  or  student  of 
the  college  bears  to  it  are  no  longer  those  of  the  board- 
ing school  based  upon  the  home,  but  are  rather  of  the 
same  threefold  nature  which  the  citizen  of  the  state 
or  community  bears  to  it,  namely :  first,  to  the  state  and 
its  government;  second,  to  his  fellow-citizens  as  a  body 
or  in  a  business,  professional  or  community  way;  and 
third,  to  his  own  home  and  to  those  to  whom  he  bears 
kinship  or  other  intimate  social  relations. 

First,  in  his  relation  to  the  state  or  government,  the 
citizen  is  governed  almost  entirely  by  well-defined  laws 
which  are  in  the  form  of  written  statutes  or  ordinances. 

In  the  second  relation  of  citizen  to  citizen,  the  indi- 
vidual is  governed  principally  by  contract,  comity, 
civility  and  rules  governing  business  and  personal  con- 
tact— that  is,  by  usage  and  custom,  with  but  little  direct 


The  College  a  Quasi  Public  Corporation        41 

interference  from  the  state  by  written  law  or  ordinance. 
It  is  easy  to  perceive  how  his  community  or  business  or 
professional  life  is  apparently  of  vastly  greater  impor- 
tance to  the  ordinary  individual  than  his  political  or 
civic  relations  to  the  commonwealth;  although  in  one 
sense  the  latter  are  at  the  very  foundation  of  the  former. 
There  is  no  law  requiring  a  man  to  pay  his  debts  by 
bank  checks  nor  to  receive  payments  in  that  kind  of 
private  currency.  Yet  ninety-five  per  cent  of  our  ex- 
changes are  made  by  the  privately  agreed  medium  of 
checks  rather  than  by  the  publicly  ordained  coin  or 
bank  or  United  States  currency.  Substantially  all  the 
immense  transactions  of  our  commerce  and  daily  busi- 
ness affairs  are  within  the  realm  of  private  contract, 
with  an  appeal  to  the  courts  only  in  case  of  dispute.  In 
other  words,  in  his  business,  professional  or  community 
life  the  citizen  is  governed,  so  far  as  he  is  governed  at 
all,  by  custom  or  good  manners,  or  by  written  or  oral 
contracts,  which  in  turn  are  more  likely  to  be  affected 
and  governed  by  an  enlightened  public  sentiment  or 
even  by  the  newspapers  than  by  any  statute  or  written 
ordinance. 

In  the  third  relation,  that  of  the  home  and  the  per- 
sonal friend,  the  citizen  is  substantially  a  law  unto  him- 
self, unless  riotous  or  other  public  misconduct  passes 
the  limits  set  by  the  law  and  subjects  him  to  its  penal- 
ties. This  privacy  of  the  home,  with  the  right  under  its 
own  rules  to  govern  its  own  inmates,  is  one  of  our  most 
ancient  and  cherished  rights.  Three  hundred  years 
ago  Sir  Edward  Coke  held  that  "The  house  of  everyone 
is  to  him  as  his  castle  and  fortress,  as  well  for  his  de- 


42  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

fense  against  injury  and  violence  as  for  his  repose." 
He  had  in  mind  the  fact  that  within  his  own  castle  the 
English  lord  was  supreme,  except  in  certain  matters  as 
to  which  he  owed  fealty  to  his  overlord.  In  other 
words,  the  will  of  its  head  or  of  its  older  or  stronger 
members  is  the  law  of  the  home,  so  long  as  the  public 
peace  or  public  rights  are  not  infringed.  In  many  re- 
spects the  written  law,  and  even  the  constitution  and 
the  bill  of  rights,  halt  at  the  door  of  the  home  and  are 
inapplicable  within  its  portals;  for  many  things  are  not 
crimes  when  done  within  the  seclusion  of  the  home 
which  would  be  punishable  as  such  if  done  in  public. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  citizen  of  the  state  lives  under 
the  threefold  control  (a)  of  the  written  statute  or  or- 
dinance promulgated  by  the  general  or  local  govern- 
ment; (b)  of  public  sentiment,  or  usage  or  contract, 
arranged  between  man  and  man;  and  (c)  of  the  rules  and 
limitations  of  his  own  home,  for  which  he  himself  is 
mainly  responsible.  These  various  kinds  of  regula- 
tions governing  the  conduct  of  the  citizen  belong  to 
different  classes,  with  different  powers  and  punish- 
ments, acting  upon  different  planes,  and  upon  different 
sides  of  the  citizen's  character  and  upon  different 
phases  of  his  life,  and  through  widely  differing  instru- 
mentalities. He  may  be  large  minded  or  narrow 
minded  in  his  political  or  civic  relations  to  the  general 
or  local  government,  or  in  his  business  or  professional 
relations,  or  in  his  attitude  toward  his  home  and  his 
friends.  He  may  be  distinguished,  or  quite  the  con- 
trary, in  any  one  or  more  of  these  relations;  but  the  fact 
that  the  life  of  the  ordinary  breadwinner  is  lived  upon 


The  College  a  Quasi  Public  Corporation        43 

these  three  planes  should  be  kept  clearly  before  our 
minds  as  we  study  the  quasi  college  state  and  its 
student  citizens. 

The  statute  law  fills  but  a  small  part  in  the  life  of 
the  law-abiding  citizen,  who  performs,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  most  of  his  duties  toward  the  state.  The  major 
part  of  his  time  is  divided  between  the  community  and 
home  planes  of  his  life.  Reform  in  the  domain  of  the 
state  must  be  brought  about  by  beneficent  and  wise 
laws  and  a  rigid  enforcement  of  the  written  law,  backed 
by  a  public  sentiment  which  compels  all  executive,  ad- 
ministrative, legislative  and  judicial  forces  to  do  their 
duty.  Reform  in  the  sphere  of  the  business  or  com- 
munity life  must  be  brought  about  by  elevating  public 
sentiment  and  then  enforcing  it  by  common  consent. 
But  reform  within  the  home  must  come  through  the 
dominant  powers  therein;  that  is,  the  parents  or  other 
heads  of  the  family,  backed  oftentimes  by  a  consensus 
of  that  particular  local  division  of  the  social  order,  not 
so  broad  as  to  be  called  public  sentiment,  that  some 
specific  change  is  desirable.  In  other  words  reform 
comes  in  each  plane  through  the  power  which  is  domi- 
nant therein — in  the  state  through  the  statute  law;  in 
the  community  through  public  consent  or  private  agree- 
ment; in  the  home  through  the  heads  thereof.  But 
through  all  these  planes  runs  something  corresponding 
to  an  enlightened  public  sentiment. 

Nor,  in  tracing  the  resemblance  of  the  college  to  the 
community,  must  we  overlook  the  striking  dissimilarity 
among  governmental  corporations  of  the  same  class. 
As  nations  of  equal  rank  differ  among  themselves  in 


44  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

constitutions,  laws,  customs  and  peoples,  so  our  forty- 
six  sovereign  states  have  constitutions,  laws  and  cus- 
toms which  differ  in  many  particulars;  each  county 
within  a  state  may  make  dissimilar  rules  for  its  citizens ; 
each  city  within  the  county  or  state  may  be  governed  by 
a  charter  and  ordinances  varying  from  those  of  a  neigh- 
boring city;  each  minor  municipal  subdivision  has  the 
power  to  regulate  its  affairs  so  that  in  some  respects  they 
will  vary  from  that  of  any  of  its  fellows ;  and  each  home 
is  a  law  unto  itself.  This  dissimilarity  does  not  change 
the  essential  similarity  of  the  class  in  general  structure, 
purposes  and  powers,  and  yet  must  be  carefully  re- 
garded in  considering  the  individuals  of  the  class. 

We  find  this  same  startling  dissimilarity  between  our 
various  colleges,  universities  and  technical  schools,  in 
rights,  powers,  charters,  customs  and  internal  govern- 
ment and  rule,  but  as  striking  a  similarity  in  intent  and 
content.  The  great  objects  of  the  various  institutions 
remain  substantially  the  same,  but,  like  the  various 
states  and  other  municipalities,  each  institution  must 
work  out  its  own  objects  in  its  own  way. 

Hence  in  our  reorganization  of  the  college  state, 
community  and  home,  we  must  proceed  with  a  con- 
stant appreciation  that  there  are  local  differences  which 
must  never  be  lost  sight  of,  and  an  autonomy  which  is 
important  because  it  evinces  and  typifies  the  organic 
life  from  which  it  has  come.  Our  reorganization  plan 
must  be  broad  enough  to  allow  for  the  individual  differ- 
ences in  the  various  institutions  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made,  and  to  attain  results  notwith- 
standing these  differences. 


The  College  a  Quasi  Public  Corporation        45 

A  little  further  reflection  will  show  us  how  complete 
has  been  this  change  from  the  simplicity  of  the  original 
conception  of  the  boarding-school  college  based  upon  the 
home  to  the  complexity  of  the  modern  quasi  college  state. 

The  earliest  New  England  colleges  were  designed  to 
be  the  official  theological  seminaries  of  their  respective 
colonies.  Harvard  was  founded  because  the  colonists 
dreaded  "to  leave  an  illiterate  ministery  to  the  churches 
after  our  present  ministers  [who  had  been  educated  in 
England]  shall  lie  in  the  dust.'* ! 

In  Connecticut  the  original  thought  was  to  found  "  a 
college  in  which  youth  might  be  fitted  for  public  service 
in  church  and  state";  but  the  church  before  the 
state,  and  it  was  out  of  this  thought  that  Yale  sprang. 
But  the  pupils  in  these  colleges,  so-called,  were  mere 
boys  of  from  twelve  to  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  were 
ruled  by  Puritan  teachers  who  were  considered  solely 
and  only  as  in  loco  parentis?  and  as  responsible  for  the 
college  home  life  and  manners  of  the  pupils  and  for  the 
small  amount  of  the  college  community  life. 

The  evolution  from  this  first  form  has  been  a  long  but 
complete  one,  until  to-day  we  find  that  the  students  of 
the  college  maintain  to  it,  not  the  relation  of  children  in 
a  home  or  school,  but  rather  of  citizens  within  a  state, 
and  that  such  relation  is  threefold:  (a)  to  the  central 
body  or  government  as  embodied  in  the  financial,  in- 
structional, administrative  and  executive  departments; 
(b)  to  each  other  in  the  college  community  life;  and  (c) 
to  their  intimates  in  their  college  homes.  Moreover, 

>  "New  England's  First  Fruits,"  p.  i. 

«  "  Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  Chap.  I-IV. 


46  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

the  same  general  classes  of  rules  govern  the  citizens  of 
this  little  state  or  community  as  control  the  conduct 
of  the  citizens  of  the  ordinary  municipal  corporation, 
(a)  In  their  relations  toward  the  college  itself  and  its 
government,  the  law  is  the  charter  and  the  written  or- 
dinances which,  under  the  charter,  the  institution,  by 
its  officers,  faculty  or  board  of  control,  may  make  to 
regulate  its  property  and  affairs  and  the  lives  of  its 
students  in  their  relation  to  it  as  a  quasi  state,  and  not 
much  farther,  (b)  The  larger  relation  of  student  to 
student  in  the  college  community  life  is  that  of  citizen 
to  citizen,  and  is  to  be  regulated,  in  most  instances,  not 
so  much  by  college  ordinances — as  in  the  earlier  times, 
when  the  student's  every  move  was  thus  controlled— 
but  rather  by  college  usages,  agreements,  customs  and 
good  breeding.  This  portion  of  the  college  life  must  be 
chiefly  controlled  by  good  and  clean  college  conditions 
and  by  an  enlightened  public  sentiment  which  it  is  the 
vital  interest  of  the  college  to  raise  to  the  highest  pos- 
sible level.  It  should  accomplish  this  not  by  legisla- 
tion, except  as  a  last  resort,  but  rather  by  those  influ- 
ences which  legitimately  enlighten,  elevate  and  enforce 
public  opinion,  customs  and  contracts  in  business  and 
elsewhere.  Certainly  of  all  places  in  the  world  it  ought 
not  to  be  difficult,  without  the  use  of  rigid  regulations, 
to  foster  and  maintain  a  lofty  public  sentiment  and 
atmosphere  in  an  American  college.  Here,  if  any- 
where, the  consent  of  the  governed  ought  to  be  sufficient 
to  put  the  relations  of  student  to  student — the  college 
community  life — upon  the  highest  moral,  ethical  and 
refined  level. 


The  College  a  Quasi  Public  Corporation        47 

(c)  So  to-day,  corresponding  to  the  relation  of  the 
citizen  to  his  home,  there  are  college  homes  which  are 
the  "fortress  and  castle"  of  their  inmates,  which  are 
not  to  be  stormed  from  without,  but,  like  ordinary 
homes,  are  to  be  chiefly  controlled  by  the  molding  in- 
fluences of  those  who  are  at  the  head  of  the  castle  and 
fortress  and  manage  its  affairs,  and  whose  word  is  the 
law  therein. 

This  similarity  of  the  college  state  to  other  municipal 
corporations  is  subject  to  one  important  qualification. 
A  large  proportion  of  its  citizens  are  legally  minors,  and 
a  still  larger  proportion  are  not  yet  self-supporting 
breadwinners.  Hence  there  are  certain  rights  of 
parents  and  guardians  which  call  for  a  more  or  less 
distinct  recognition  from  the  college,  and  which  must 
be  reckoned  with  as  we  study  our  problem  of  reorganiza- 
tion. But  all  this  merely  puts  a  higher  and  more  per- 
sonal responsibility  upon  the  institution  as  to  those 
matters  in  which  it  is  still  regarded  as  in  loco  parentis; 
a  threefold  responsibility,  to  the  state,  the  parents  and 
the  students  themselves.  This  lingering  remnant  of 
the  past  does  not  make  the  similarity  of  the  college  to 
the  municipality  less  striking;  for  the  state  and  muni- 
cipal governments  have  assumed  and  are  carrying  out 
the  training  of  their  own  youth,  and  for  this  purpose, 
as  to  more  than  half  our  students,  the  state  universities 
are  the  direct  agents  of  the  commonwealth.  Further- 
more, every  college  is  directly  dependent,  for  students, 
upon  the  public  schools,  and  demands  that  the  public- 
school  curriculum  shall  be  articulated  with  its  own,  as 
will  be  more  fully  shown. 


48  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

At  this  point  I  call  attention  again  to  the  words 
"college"  and  "college  life"  as  used  herein.  They  are 
intended  to  apply  to  the  students  of  all  institutions- 
no  matter  what  their  position  in  the  higher  educational 
scale — whose  student  lives  are  wholly  or  principally 
spent  in  college  homes  or  within  the  influence  of  a 
college  community  which  affects  them  as  citizens  there- 
in. Of  course  I  do  not  imply  that  the  college  has 
not  still  the  power  as  a  sovereign  corporation,  subject 
only  to  a  limited  control  by  the  legislature  and  courts, 
to  make  written  ordinances  which  shall,  necessarily  or 
unnecessarily,  wisely  or  unwisely,  attempt  to  control 
the  relations  of  student  to  student,  or  the  internal 
affairs  of  the  college  homes,  and  which  must  be  obeyed 
or  evaded  if  the  student  is  to  remain  within  the  juris- 
diction of  the  college  state.  Historically  the  college  has 
always  had  and  exercised  this  power,  and  certainly  it 
has  never,  as  a  matter  of  law,  lost  these  rights.  But 
social  and  educational  conditions  have  so  far  changed 
that  the  ill-advised  use  of  such  an  obsolete  power  by 
the  college  will  be  the  same  as  in  the  ordinary  com- 
munity where  an  unwise  law  or  ordinance  will  either 
be  repealed  or  become  a  dead  letter;  and  in  either 
event  the  prestige  of  the  government  and  of  all  law 
suffers. 

If,  following  the  rule  of  the  times,  there  has  been  this 
complete  evolution  and  revolution  in  the  nature  of  our 
colleges,  it  is  manifestly  ill  advised  for  them  to  attempt 
to  govern  their  student  citizens,  in  the  planes  of  their 
community  life  or  college  home,  by  college  legislation 
or  ordinances,  as  was  done  in  the  seventeenth  and 


The  College  a  Quasi  Public  Corporation        49 

eighteenth  centuries.  Such  laws  in  regard  to  these 
personal  matters  were  frequently  evaded  then,  and 
must  become  practically  dead  letters  under  modern 
conditions.  Our  colleges  have  largely  abandoned  all 
attempts  to  enforce  these  obsolete  provisions,  but  have 
failed  to  substitute  any  suitable  modern  agencies  to 
accomplish  the  same  desirable  ends,  and  hence  the  con- 
ditions of  the  student  life  have  too  frequently  become 
chaotic,  unless  student  agencies  have  provided  some- 
thing to  take  the  place  of  the  ancient  ordinances. 

Furthermore,  if  our  colleges  have  come  to  partake  of 
the  nature  of  the  ordinary  state  or  community,  then  (a) 
the  principles  of  their  government  and  internal  rela- 
tions are  to  be  found,  not  in  ancient  boarding-school 
college  methods,  but  in  a  new  form  of  civics,  political 
economy  and  administration,  especially  applicable  to 
this  new  form  of  political  entity,  (b)  If  we  would  study 
the  college  community  life  and  the  relations  therein 
of  the  students  to  each  other,  let  us  go  directly  to  the 
highest  forms  of  the  rules  and  customs  which  govern 
the  relations  of  man  to  man  in  modern  business  or  pro- 
fessional life  or  in  society,  (c)  If  we  would  know  more 
of  the  college  home  and  its  power  for  good  or  evil  upon 
the  functions  of  the  college,  and  in  the  college  com- 
munity life  and  in  the  lives  of  its  own  inmates,  let  us 
study  the  ordinary  homes  from  which  our  students 
come,  and  be  assured  that  in  the  best  thereof  we  shall 
find  the  pattern  for  the  highest  form  of  the  college  home. 

If,  then,  the  American  college  has  in  recent  years 
become  a  quasi  state  or  community,  this  is  another 
potent  reason  for  an  organic  and  intelligent  reorganiza- 


50  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

tion  of  the  whole  college  economy  and  methods  along 
these  new  lines;  for  a  revamping  of  many  of  our  no- 
tions about  the  college  and  its  government;  and  for 
examining  still  more  closely  the  true  nature  of  the 
college  community  life  and  of  the  college  home,  and 
their  vital  bearing  upon  the  college  itself  and  its  good 
name  and  future,  and  upon  each  and  all  of  its  other 
departments,  and  upon  the  individual  training  and 
work  in  after  life  of  each  and  every  undergraduate. 

But,  as  in  the  life  of  the  ordinary  breadwinner,  re- 
forms must  be  brought  about  in  a  philosophical  way  in 
the  various  planes  of  that  life,  so,  in  the  life  of  the 
student,  constant  and  intelligent  pressure  must  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  and  through  the  forces  dominant 
in  the  field  where  the  evils  exist,  and  this  has  been  the 
course  of  all  true  progress  so  far  made  in  the  colleges. 

Every  endeavor  to  bring  about  student  government 
has  been  an  unconscious  step  in  the  working  out  of 
this  ideal  of  the  college  state  and  the  tendencies  in  that 
direction  are  constantly  growing  broader  and  stronger. 
Every  fraternity  home  built  by  the  alumni  at  the  so- 
licitation of  the  undergraduates  has  been  an  uncon- 
scious demonstration  that  powerful  forces  were  working 
within  the  college  state  and  community  toward  the 
realization  of  the  college  home.  The  fact  that  there  are 
now  more  college  students  rooming  in  the  homes  pro- 
vided by  the  fraternities  than  in  the  college  dormitories 
shows  how  powerful  has  been  this  force  which  the  stu- 
dents themselves  have  brought  to  bear  toward  a  reor- 
ganization of  the  college  economy. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    RELATION    OF    THE    COLLEGE    TO    THE    COMMON- 
WEALTH 

BUT  we  have  yet  to  consider  the  new  relations  which, 
because  of  changed  powers  and  conditions,  the  college 
and  the  university  bear  to  the  commonwealth  itself. 
When  this  country  was  a  vast  wilderness,  and  its  chief 
products  were  those  of  the  forest  and  the  sea,  and 
government  was  largely  by  English  proconsuls,  and  the 
chief  use  of  learning  was  to  attempt  to  apply  Old  Testa- 
ment texts  to  New  England  ecclesiastical  politics,  a 
college  education  was  a  luxury  rather  than  a  necessity; 
a  setting  of  occasional  individuals  above  and  apart  from 
their  fellows,  rather  than  a  preparation  for  work  with 
and  among  their  fellows  who  had  themselves  received 
a  good  education  in  the  public  high  schools.  We  must 
keep  constantly  before  us  the  fact  that  in  the  earlier 
days  the  college  course  was  designed  to  train  controver- 
sialists in  an  age  of  scriptural  controversy.  We  have 
absolutely  no  use  for  such  scholars  to-day.  They  would 
be  laughed  to  scorn.  In  fact,  a  theological  library  of 
even  forty  years  ago  is  now  practically  valueless  except 
as  a  curiosity.  It  is  but  little  more  than  thirty  years 
since  one  of  the  foremost  of  our  New  England  college 
presidents  annually  delivered  an  hour's  lecture  to  his 
senior  class  as  to  whether  or  not  the  Tabernacle  built 

5' 


52  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

by  Moses  had  a  ridge  pole;  and  I  am  ashamed  to  admit 
that  I  cannot  remember  to  which  side  he  gaye  the  de- 
cision. Moreover,  in  the  earlier  days,  a  college  educa- 
tion had  a  tendency  to  build  up  an  aristocracy  in  colo- 
nies which  still  clung  to  the  aristocratic  ideas  which  they 
brought  from  their  mother  countries,  and  which  were 
being  constantly  recruited  therefrom. *  There  was  noth- 
ing in  the  least  resembling  our  modern  system  of  uni- 
versal and  compulsory  graded  primary,  secondary  and 
high-school  education. 

But  the  present  is  increasingly  an  age  of  scientific 
accuracy  and  detail,  of  specialization  and  differentia- 
tion. New  and  startling  questions  are  arising  in  the 
domain  of  the  state  itself,  as  well  as  in  the  arts,  sciences 
and  professions,  and  in  business  and  commerce.  These 
questions  are  political,  ethical,  sociological,  economic, 
and  but  rarely  religious.  They  strike  at  those  founda- 
tions of  society  which,  at  least  in  this  country,  we  had 
thought  were  fixed  forever.  These  issues  arise  in  con- 
nection with  the  greatest  problem  of  race  assimilation 
which  the  world  has  ever  seen  or  is  likely  to  see.  While 
our  growth  has  been  phenomenal,  it  has  raised  up  ex- 
ternal competitors  and  engendered  internal  conflicts 
which  require  the  nation  and  each  of  its  component 
parts  to  muster  all  their  forces — and  the  greatest  and 
most  promising  of  these  is  education,  universal,  com- 
pulsory, free,  and  constantly  broader  and  higher. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  evolution  of  our  col- 
leges into  corporations  exercising  some  of  the  functions 
of  the  state  is  no  more  accidental  than  the  growth  of  the 

»  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  Chap.  III. 


K.X 

Relation  o]  College  to  Commonwealth  53 

quasi  turnpike  railroads  into  vast  corporations  to  which, 
through  their  franchises,  the  state  has  now  turned  over 
so  many  of  its  own  functions.  These  latter  corpora- 
tions have  received  their  present  rights  and  powers  not 
because  they  were  railroads,  but  rather  because  modern 
conditions  demanded  that  in  some  manner  there  should 
be  provided  the  transportation  facilities  which  we  now 
have.  It  was  felt  that  the  state  was  not  fitted  to  fur- 
nish these  accommodations,  and  hence  by  the  consent  of 
its  citizens  it  freely  conferred  upon  the  railroad  corpora- 
tions the  rights  which  would  enable  them  to  do  what  the 
state  does  in  other  countries.  But  the  conferring  of 
public  functions  upon  a  corporation  necessarily  implies 
that  that  corporation  may  and  should,  to  a  correspond- 
ing extent,  be  held  accountable  to  the  public  for  the 
proper  use  of  the  powers  so  conferred.  Gradually  and 
almost  imperceptibly  the  railroads  have  been  the  re- 
cipients of  valuable  franchises  and  rights  from  the 
state,  and  we  are  now  beginning  to  appreciate  that  the 
state  can  and  should  demand  adequate  and  proper  re- 
turns from  the  corporations  which  it  has  so  splendidly 
endowed. 

In  the  same  manner,  and  as  imperceptibly,  the  col- 
leges and  universities  have  become  the  official  or  un- 
official capstones  of  a  vast  system  of  public  primary, 
secondary  and  high-school  instruction,  upon  which  this 
country  is  now  spending  over  $300,000,000  annually, 
with  an  annual  increase  of  about  $30,000,000,  and 
which  represents  a  past  investment  of  billions  of  dollars. 

It  is  a  very  recent  policy  that  the  state  itself  should 
provide  and  enforce  a  compulsory  and  universal  educa- 


54  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

tion  in  book  learning;  going,  if  necessary,  so  far  as  to 
set  up  truant  schools  and  to  punish  the  parents  of  truant 
children.  We  have  reversed  the  earlier  notion  that 
book  learning,  and  especially  the  higher  education,  were 
matters  for  the  home  or  the  church.  Hence  the  col- 
leges have  become  an  important  factor  in  a  new  educa- 
tional system  which  has  its  mainspring  in  the  common- 
wealth rather  than  in  the  family  or  the  church.  In  the 
older  times  the  individual  or  his  parents  or  his  church 
determined  whether  he  should  have  an  opportunity  for 
book  learning.  Now  he  is  born  into  a  state  policy  of 
universal  education  which  is  as  fundamental  as  the 
form  of  government.  The  main  object  of  this  system 
of  universal  and  compulsory  education  by  the  state  is 
to  train  for  an  enlightened  citizenship  under  a  system 
of  universal  and  almost  compulsory  suffrage.  Under 
these  conditions,  and  as  in  the  case  of  the  railroads  and 
other  public-service  corporations,  the  public  has  felt 
that  the  colleges  were  better  fitted  than  the  state  to 
exercise  many  of  its  educational  functions.  Hence  the 
policy  has  been  deliberately  adopted  and  generously 
carried  out  of  endowing  these  outside  agencies — often 
survivors  from  the  time  when  there  was  no  compulsory 
education — to  exercise  what  are  now  in  a  strict  sense 
public  functions.  Especially  at  the  East  we  are  apt  to 
think  of  our  great  system  of  higher  learning  as  a  mat- 
ter of  private  corporations  and  rights,  without  stop- 
ping to  consider  how  the  private  colleges  have  become, 
every  one  of  them,  quasi  public  corporations — and  in 
a  sense  public-service  corporations — directly  owing  im- 
portant duties  to  the  state  which  has  conferred  such 


Relation  of  College  to  Commonwealth  55 

immense  powers  and  benefits  upon  them,  with  the 
understanding,  express  or  implied,  that  they  shall 
recognize  and  freely  perform  their  reciprocal  obliga- 
tions to  the  state. 

State  aid  implies  the  right  of  the  state  to  call  for  an 
adequate  return  at  the  proper  time  and  in  the  proper 
way;  and  every  college  has  had  state  aid,  if  only  in  the 
way  of  relief  from  taxation.  Furthermore,  the  whole 
public-school  system  supported  by  the  state  is  modeled 
so  as  to  connect  with  and  feed  the  colleges,  private  as 
well  as  public.  For  this  aid  the  colleges  owe  a  cor- 
responding obligation  to  the  commonwealth  which  they 
must  freely  recognize  and  conscientiously  perform.  At 
least  ninety  per  cent  of  the  students  of  the  Eastern 
colleges  and  probably  ninety-five  per  cent  of  those  of 
the  Western  colleges  have  received  the  whole  or  the 
major  part  of  their  preliminary  education  in  the  public 
schools.  Prior  to  the  nineteenth  century  these  pro- 
portions were  about  reversed.  The  student  body  of 
even  the  privately  endowed  Eastern  colleges  would  be 
practically  wiped  out  and  not  ten  per  cent  would  re- 
main if  the  undergraduates  educated  at  the  expense  of 
the  state  were  withdrawn.  The  colleges  demand,  and 
the  state  docilely  agrees,  that  the  $300,000,000  of  an- 
nual outlay  upon  the  public  schools  shall  be  so  ex- 
pended as  to  deliver  at  the  doors  of  the  colleges  the 
pick  of  the  state's  yearly  crop  of  future  citizens. 

But  the  duty  of  the  college  to  the  state  in  regard  to 
this  wealth  of  future  citizen  material  thus  delivered, 
without  expense,  is  not  even  confined  to  the  state  which 
has  conferred  the  college  charter.  For  example,  Amherst 


56  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

and  Williams  each  have  more  students  from  New  York 
State — and  hence  who  were  fitted  mostly  in  New  York 
schools — than  from  Massachusetts;  and  a  very  large 
majority  of  their  students  come  from  other  states  than 
Massachusetts.  Hence  these  colleges  are,  to  this  ex- 
tent, the  capstones  of  the  systems  of  the  public  education 
of  states  other  than  Massachusetts  which  incorporated 
them  and  to  whose  laws  they  are  directly  amenable.  In 
1908-9  only  147  out  of  523,  or  twenty-eight  per  cent,  of 
the  students  of  Amherst  came  from  Massachusetts 
homes,  while  168,  or  thirty-two  per  cent,  came  from  New 
York  homes.  Therefore,  in  a  limited  sense,  Amherst 
College  is  not  so  much  a  private  and  privately  endowed 
college  under  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  as  she  is  a 
public  servant  and  a  link  in  the  public-school  system  of 
New  York  and  other  states,  each  of  which  by  law 
recognizes  an  Amherst  College  diploma  as  on  a  par  with 
the  diplomas  of  their  own  colleges.  Yet  New  York 
does  not  recognize  a  license  to  practice  medicine  or  law 
in  Massachusetts  as  entitling  its  holder  to  practice  in 
New  York,  although  she  fully  recognizes  the  degrees  of 
the  colleges  of  Massachusetts  as  on  a  par  with  those  of 
New  York  colleges.  Hence  we  see  that  a  college  degree 
has  a  general  recognition,  while  a  professional  license 
has  not,  unless  with  a  further  and  local  examination 
and  qualification.  Except  as  to  direct  gfants  of  public 
funds  the  denominational  colleges  are  under  as  great 
obligations  to  the  state  as  any  other  institutions  of 
higher  learning.  Imagine  the  plight  of  any  college 
which  could  not  draw  a  single  pupil  who  had  been  at 
any  time  taught  in  the  public  schools.  Hence  even  the 


Relation  oj  College  to  Commonwealth  57 

private  colleges  rest  directly  upon  the  public-school 
system  and  are  thus  public  servants. 

The  wonderful  liberality  of  our  nation  to  our  schools, 
colleges  and  universities  is  a  matter  of  amazement  to 
the  peoples  of  Europe.  About  a  year  ago  a  native  born 
Hungarian  wrote  to  some  home  newspapers  stating 
that  the  total  expenditures  in  the  United  States  for 
educational  purposes  for  the  year  1903-4  had  been 
$344,216,227.  The  story  was  received  with  utter  in- 
credulity, and  the  suggestion  was  made,  editorially, 
that  the  decimal  mark  had  been  inadvertently  moved 
one  point  to  the  right;  that  the  true  figures  should  have 
been  $34,421,622;  and  that  even  this  was  a  case  of 
Yankee  bragging  and  exaggeration.  The  correspond- 
ent's father,  who  was  himself  a  minister  of  the  govern- 
ment, wrote  a  warning  against  making  such  ridic- 
ulous mistakes.  For  vindication  it  became  necessary  to 
send  over  the  official  reports  of  the  United  States  De- 
partment of  Education  to  show  that  not  only  were 
the  figures  correctly  given  for  1903-4,  but  that  in 
1904-5  the  outlay  was  $376,996,472,  and  in  1905-6, 
$399,688,910. 

These  enormous  expenditures,  chiefly  from  the  public 
moneys,  are  cheerfully  made  because  the  nation  and  all 
its  parts  realize  that  there  must  be  provided  the  widest 
and  best  training  and  education  for  citizenship — a  train- 
ing and  education  that  shall  be  practically  universal, 
and  which  assuredly  ought  to  be  applicable  and  effect- 
ive in  all  of  the  planes  of  the  personal  life  of  every  future 
citizen  of  the  state.  Hence  we  find  that  the  public- 
school  training  and  education  aim  not  only  to  teach  the 


58  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

three  R's  and  other  book  learning,  but  also  to  give 
manual  and  domestic  science  and  physiological  training 
which  shall  enable  the  pupils  to  become  better  bread- 
winners, husbands,  wives  and  parents. 

We  are  apt  to  think  that  we  do  not  draw  the  line  of 
state  control  closely  enough  upon  our  railroads,  and 
sufficiently  force  them  to  realize  and  perform  their 
duties  as  public  servants.  At  the  same  time  we  quite 
overlook  how  much  the  colleges  owe  to  the  state,  and 
how,  more  than  ever  before,  they  fall  short  when  they 
fail  to  do  everything  in  their  power  to  fulfill  the  pre- 
eminent duties  which  they  owe  to  the  state  and  which 
they  alone  can  perform  for  it;  since  to  them  alone  have 
been  granted  the  exclusive  rights  and  enormous  sub- 
sidies which  have  been  conferred  upon  our  institutions 
of  higher  learning.  This  change  in  the  duties  and 
functions  of  the  colleges  and  universities  must  be  taken 
into  full  account  in  our  reorganization,  for  we  must 
recognize  more  fully  than  ever  before  the  duties  which 
the  colleges,  private  and  public,  now  owe  to  the  public 
and  to  the  state,  entirely  apart  from  and  almost  above 
the  duties  which  they  owe  to  their  own  undergraduates, 
alumni,  faculty  or  denominations.  As  we  proceed  we 
shall  see  how  the  colleges  would  fare  if  they  were  under 
the  same  governmental  rule  as  their  fellow  public  ser- 
vants, the  railroads,  and  what  kind  of  showing  they 
would  make  under  rules  similar  to  those  of  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission. 

The  college  is,  in  its  relation  to  the  commonwealth,  a 
quasi  city,  but  it  is  "a  city  set  on  a  hill  that  cannot  be 
hid."  It  should  be  a  pattern  to  its  sister  municipalities 


Relation  of  College  to  Commonwealth  59 

in  the  fairness  and  administration  of  its  laws,  in  the 
cleanness  of  its  public  sentiment,  and  in  the  uplifting 
qualities  of  its  home  life.  It  must  not  be  pointing  out 
to  its  students  the  motes  in  the  eye  of  the  ordinary 
municipality  when  there  are  beams  in  its  own  eye. 

It  is  not  merely  a  pedagogical  matter  if  the  college 
authorities,  through  their  blindness  and  lack  of  admin- 
istration, have  often  allowed  the  college  atmosphere  to 
become  debased  and  the  college  home  life  to  be  brought 
to  a  low  level.  This  is  a  question  of  the  highest  moment 
to  the  commonwealth  and  its  homes,  its  parents  and  its 
citizens.  As  a  business  proposition  and  as  a  matter  of 
justice  and  right,  there  must  be  a  complete  change, 
quite  regardless,  if  need  be,  of  the  personal  feelings  of 
the  men  who  are  responsible  for  such  a  reprehensible 
state  of  affairs — whether  their  sins  be  those  of  omission 
or  commission,  whether  their  fault  arises  from  not  doing 
themselves  or  from  failing  to  call  upon  those,  outside 
their  own  ranks,  who  could  at  least  have  kept  college 
affairs  at  their  former  high  level. 

Possibly,  in  a  sense,  the  decadence  in  college  con- 
ditions has  not  been  due  altogether  to  the  pedagogues, 
but  in  large  part  to  the  commonwealth,  and  to  its  homes, 
its  parents  and  its  citizens.  For  college  teachers  and 
students  are,  and  must  to  a  great  degree  continue  to  be, 
the  products  of  the  commonwealth  and  its  homes,  its 
parents  and  its  citizens.  We  shall  be  constantly  and 
increasingly  impressed,  as  we  proceed,  with  the  feel- 
ing that  the  great  reform  in  the  colleges  must  indeed 
come  from  the  outside  and  not  by  mere  reliance 
upon  the  college  instructors;  yet  that  the  leadership 


60  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

in  that  great  reform  must  come  from  the  colleges  them- 
selves. 

Hence  as  we  analyze  the  colleges  and  their  short- 
comings, and  plead  for  a  reorganization  along  business 
lines  and  upon  business  principles,  and  for  a  college 
education  and  training  for  citizenship,  let  us  not  think 
that  we  are  dealing  solely  with  private  vested  rights 
which  must  be  considered  sacred;  but  rather  that  we 
are  demanding  that  our  most  important  public  ser- 
vants— which  have  been  endowed  with  great  privileges, 
and  which  have  received  immense  sums  from  the  public 
funds,  and  in  partial  aid  of  which  the  country  annually 
spends  $300,000,000 — shall  be  held  to  the  strictest  ac- 
countability to  the  state,  and  to  the  humblest  home, 
parent  and  citizen  therein  that  may  be  adversely 
affected  by  any  unnecessary  evils  in  such  high  places. 
The  best  possible  reorganization,  upon  the  best  possible 
business  basis,  and  if  necessary  with  extensive  state 
aid,  is  not  a  whit  too  much  to  ask  of  our  colleges, 
especially  as  that  is  what  they  themselves  should  be 
clamoring  for.  The  true  and  close  relations  of  the 
colleges  to  the  state  and  the  public  will  constantly 
recur  as  we  proceed  in  our  discussion. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    STUDENT    LIFE    DEPARTMENT    AND    THE    COLLEGE 
COMMUNITY   LIFE 

WE  have  seen  that  there  are  three  planes  in  the  life 
of  the  ordinary  citizen  and  breadwinner,  viz.:  his 
duties  to  the  state,  to  his  community,  business  or  pro- 
fessional circle,  and  to  his  home  and  personal  friends; 
and  that,  in  a  similar  manner,  the  undergraduate  sus- 
tains a  threefold  relation  to  his  college  state,  community 
and  home;  and  that  the  two  last-named  relations  are 
comprehended  in  the  student  life  department  which 
comprises  at  least  ninety  per  cent  of  the  student's  time. 
We  must  consider  now  the  student  life  department  as 
a  whole  and  the  college  community  life  in  particular, 
and  what  should  be  their  position  and  treatment  in  the 
reorganized  college.  The  college  home  life  will  be  dis- 
cussed in  later  chapters. 

This  great  department  of  the  college,  the  student 
life,  was  not  well  differentiated  in  the  early  days,  but 
has  now  become  almost,  if  not  quite,  the  controlling 
part  of  college  life.  At  first  the  young  boys,  who 
usually  graduated  from  college  at  seventeen  or  eighteen, 
were  constantly  under  the  watchful  guard  of  president, 
professors  and  tutors.  They  were  subject  to  flogging, 
and  in  the  freshman  year  to  fagging  by  all  the  upper 
classmen,  bachelors,  masters,  tutors,  professors  and 

61 


62  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

president,  under  elaborate  Freshman  Servitude  rules. 
The  pupils  studied,  recited,  ate  and  slept  in  the  same 
building,  under  the  closest  guard  of  their  tutors,  who 
were  hard-headed  and  hard-handed  Puritans,  who  be- 
lieved in  original  sin,  and  who  lived  in  an  age  in  which 
the  statute  law  provided  that  a  child  that  smote  or 
cursed  its  parents  might  be  put  to  death.  This  watch 
and  guard  continued  from  5.15  A.M.  in  summer  and 
from  6.30  A.M.  in  winter,  through  to  a  compulsory  and 
early  bedtime,  with  four  short  "playtimes,"  aggre- 
gating four  and  one-half  hours  in  length,  during  which 
"the  schollar"  might  "be  absent  from  his  studies  or 
appointed  exercises."  Out  of  these  playtimes  must 
come  some  of  the  meals  and,  for  the  freshmen,  fagging. 
During  all  the  rest  of  the  day,  and  after  sundown  on 
Saturday  and  on  all  of  the  Sabbath,  the  boys  must  be 
in  their  rooms  or  at  college  exercises.  With  no  money, 
time  or  facilities  for  getting  away  from  the  college  town, 
it  is  not  wonderful  that  everyone  came  to  consider  the 
college  course  as  a  homogeneous  thing,  directly  under 
the  eye  of  a  superior,  intended  to  teach  good  manners 
and  personal  habits  quite  as  much  as  the  few  easy 
lessons,  for  which  often  there  were  no  text-books.  The 
college  life  was  lived  in  constant  and  close  touch  with 
the  teacher,  who  knew  every  move  of  the  pupil,  unless 
the  latter  outwitted  him.  Under  such  circumstances 
there  could  be  but  little  difference  between  the  college 
community  life  and  that  of  the  college  home.  It  was 
all  a  part  of  "college,"  which  was  considered  as  a  tem- 
porary substitute  for  the  parents'  home,  with  all  the  re- 
strictions that  there  prevailed,  but  with  some  special 


The  Student  Lije  Department  63 

advantages  in  the  way  of  education.  It  was  this  con- 
ception of  the  college  which  prompted  the  Massachu- 
setts legislature  to  confer  upon  the  Harvard  faculty  the 
express  authority  to  inflict  corporal  punishment  upon 
their  students.1 

Thus  the  faculty,  under  the  direct  provision  of  the 
statute  law,  was  put  in  the  place  of  the  parent  in  one  of 
the  most  characteristic  functions  of  the  home,  that  of 
the  personal  chastisement  of  the  young.  As  the  college 
was  avowedly  based  upon  the  home,  there  could  be  no 
such  differentiation  of  the  different  phases  of  under- 
graduate life  as  exists  in  the  quasi  college  state  of  to-day. 

But  we  have  never  quite  outlived  this  early  notion  of 
the  American  college.  We  sorrow  for  the  old  restraints 
upon  the  personal  conduct  of  the  students,  but  fail  to 
study  modern  social  and  business  conditions  and  evolve 
a  modern  method  for  accomplishing  the  same  result. 
This  failure  has  been  one  result  of  the  utter  omission 
of  our  colleges  to  organize  a  separate  administrative 
department. 

Unfortunately,  we  still  think  of  "college  life"  as  a 
comparatively  simple  and  homogeneous  affair  like  that 
of  the  small  boarding-school  colleges  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical period,  where  every  effort  was  used  to  make  the 
boys  professing  Christians,  and,  if  possible,  ministers 
of  the  gospel.  Often  nothing  could  now  be  further 
from  the  truth.  The  life  of  the  average  well-to-do  or 
wealthy  student  is  not  one  of  laziness  or  idleness,  any 
more  than  in  the  older  days,  but  rather  a  round  of  un- 
controlled outside  activities  and  temptations,  of  dis- 

1 "  Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  p.  8. 


64  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

tractions  away  from  higher  intellectual,  moral  or  re- 
ligious things  and  often  of  lapses  into  evil  ways.  The 
college  problem  is  still  and  must  continue  to  be  the 
problem  of  adolescents.  So  far  as  this  comprehends 
the  problems,  mental,  moral  and  physical,  of  a  recog- 
nized life  period  it  is  true  that  the  problem  does  not 
change.  But  so  far  as  it  deals  with  constantly  shifting 
social,  educational  and  other  elements,  the  problem 
presents  as  constantly  shifting  phases,  which  must  be 
as  constantly  anticipated  and  met  with  consummate 
wisdom. 

In  one  small  college,  the  president  recently  estimated 
that  the  recognized  student  activities  outside  of  the 
regular  curriculum,  and  including  sports,  music, 
dramatics,  etc.,  were  at  least  twenty-seven  in  number. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  the  dean  of  another  college  has 
recommended  "a  lightening  of  nonacademic  demands 
upon  the  students."  There  is  a  place  for  these  outside 
activities  which  legitimately  go  far  toward  making  a 
college  education  a  training  for  efficient  citizenship. 

Some  of  these  outside  activities  belong,  in  the  main, 
to  the  college  community  life,  like  the  teams,  crews, 
glee  clubs,  and  other  bodies  which  are  presumed  to 
represent  the  best  that  there  is  in  the  college  in  those 
lines;  and  some  are  social  and  properly  confined  to 
small  groups  of  congenial  spirits.  In  some  lines  of  out- 
side activities  the  distinction  between  the  college  com- 
munity and  the  home  is  easily  seen,  and  in  others  it  is 
not.  The  chief  point  to  be  remembered  here  is  that 
the  college  community  and  home  lives  play  as  important 
a  part  as  ever  in  molding  the  character  of  the  future 


The  Student  Life  Department  65 

problem  solver  and  citizen,  but  must  be  approached 
from  a  different  angle  and  in  a  different  spirit  than  in 
the  earlier  days. 

Now,  as  ever,  the  growth  of  tHe  citizen  is  from  his 
childhood  in  the  home  to  his  introduction  into  the 
business  or  community  life,  and  thereafter  into  his 
political  or  civic  life.  He  goes  into  business  when  he  is 
from  sixteen  to  twenty-five,  but  he  does  not  often  hold 
political  office  before  he  is  thirty.  These  transitions 
are  usually  gradual  and  halting.  The  college  age  is 
likewise  the  age  recognized  as  that  in  which  a  non- 
collegian  is  to  take  his  first  lessons  in  his  trade  or 
business,  and  form  the  habits  which  must  govern  his 
community  or  business  life.  We  should  recognize,  there- 
fore, that  these  college  years  constitute  a  life  period,  a 
character-forming  time,  in  which  especially  the  com- 
munity life  elements  of  the  character  of  the  future 
breadwinner  are  molded  and  largely  set.  This  has 
always  been  so  and  must  always  be  so,  unless  the  race 
changes.  Herein  lies  the  great  importance  of  the 
student  life  as  distinguished  from  the  pedagogical  part 
of  the  college;  for  the  embryo  citizen  and  breadwinner 
may  be  more  in  need  of  training  and  growth  in  his  com- 
munity or  social  or  home  life  than  upon  his  strictly 
intellectual  side. 

The  college  community  interests  are  those  which  are 
recognized  as  affecting  the  institution  or  the  student 
body  as  a  whole;  while  the  college  home  interests  are 
social  in  their  nature  and  affect  only  individuals  or 
small  groups  of  students. 

We  find  that  the  student  life,  or  the  ninety  per  cent 


66  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

of  his  time  outside  of  recitations,  comprises  that  por- 
tion of  the  undergraduate's  life  in  which  he  must  do  his 
studying,  and  get  his  food,  rest,  recreation  and  exer- 
cise, and  is  spent  partly  in  the  larger  college  atmosphere 
and  activities  which  environ  all  within  the  institution, 
and  partly  in  his  closer  association  with  his  chosen 
comrades  in  his  college  home.  Many  feel  that  this 
ninety  per  cent  is  the  really  important  part  of  a  college 
education;  that  it  is  not  his  scholastic  attainments,  but 
his  contact  with  his  fellow-students  in  college  and  so- 
cial activities,  which  will  make  him  a  power  in  future 
years.  No  doubt  this  ninety  per  cent  contributes  much 
of  that  indefinite  something  which  makes  an  all-around 
man  of  the  college  graduate,  and  surely  we  should  make 
every  effort  to  lift  it  to  the  highest  possible  plane.  This 
is  because  some  men  need  the  broadening  of  the  college 
community  or  the  polishing  of  the  college  home.  But 
as  reorganizes  we  must  constantly  hold  in  mind  that 
most  of  the  impurities  and  vices  of  college  come  from 
the  student  life  rather  than  from  personal  contact  with 
the  instructors;  and,  therefore,  that  if  we  would  put 
down  these  evils  and  improve  physical,  mental,  moral 
and  religious  conditions  we  must  do  so  chiefly  in  the 
great  department  of  the  student  life,  where  these  evils 
have  their  source  and  strength,  and  where,  if  anywhere, 
they  must  be  overcome. 

Christ  devotes  over  ninety  per  cent  of  His  parable  of 
the  Sower  and  the  Seed — not  to  either  the  sower  or  the 
seed — but  to  the  soil  into  which  the  seed  fell  and  to  the 
relative  failure  of  the  harvest.  He  took  for  granted 
the  goodness  of  the  seed  and  the  human  frailty  of  the 


The  Student  Lije  Department  67 

sower,  but  treated  the  ground  as  the  variable  yet  reme- 
diable factor  in  the  parable  problem.  In  our  colleges 
the  seed  typifies  the  slight  contact  of  the  student  with 
his  instructors — little  else  nowadays;  the  sower  typi- 
fies the  administration — what  little  there  is  of  it — the 
agency  which  brings  together  the  seed  and  the  soil,  the 
instructor  and  the  pupil;  while  the  student  life  largely 
determines  whether  the  soil  into  which  the  seed  falls 
shall  be  that  by  the  wayside,  or  stony,  or  thorny,  or  be 
good  ground.  We,  too,  may  safely  assume  the  goodness 
of  the  seed,  and  the  earnestness  and  devotion — but  not 
the  infallibility — of  the  sowers;  and  also  that  the  average 
results  of  the  harvest  are  relatively  very  poor;  chiefly 
because  we  have  forgotten  the  lesson  of  the  parable,  and 
have  given  most  of  our  time  and  thought  to  the  seed, 
and  but  little  to  the  sowers ;  while  we  have  neglected  to 
properly  prepare  the  hearts  and  minds  of  our  students 
by  influences  which  act  upon  them  after  the  seed  is  sown, 
or,  in  other  words,  when  they  are  not  in  the  presence  of 
their  instructors.  It  is  with  the  mental,  moral  and  re- 
ligious preparation  of  the  ground  that  we  are  concerned 
when  we  study  the  student  life  department. 

The  interest  of  the  reorganized  college  in  the  college 
community  life  and  in  the  home  life  of  its  pupils  will  be 
both  direct  and  indirect.  Direct  as  to  that  part  of  their 
time  in  which  they  must  study  and  prepare  for  their 
recitations  and  other  work  with  their  professors;  and 
indirect,  that  no  part  of  their  time  shall  be  so  spent  as 
to  unfit  them  to  get  the  most,  present  and  future,  out  of 
the  opportunities  which  the  college  offers,  or  so  as  to 
affect  her  good  name  and  fame  in  the  present  or  future, 


68  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

or  so  that  either  college  or  pupil  shall  be  derelict  in 
their  duties  to  the  state. 

The  vital  importance  of  the  student  life  department 
is  seen  in  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  the  dean 
of  one  of  the  larger  Western  universities,  a  graduate  of 
an  important  Eastern  college: 

"  I  have  also  noted  with  great  sorrow  that  in  our  Western 
institutions  the  evils  of  modern  student  life  are  even  more 
sharply  marked  than  they  are  in  the  East.  The  lack  of  the 
conservative  element,  the  presence  of  a  less  highly  organized 
society,  the  want  of  family  prejudices  to  maintain  old  con- 
ditions, have  all  led  to  more  extreme  participation  in  mod- 
ern changes  than  the  Eastern  colleges  have  experienced.  I 
know  of  no  place  where  so  much  fine  material  coming  from 
the  country  and  small  towns  has  been  ruined  by  a  single  half 
year  of  idleness  and  extravagance.  The  worst  elements  of 
city,  social  and  fraternity  life  seem  to  be  those  most  eagerly 
grasped  after  and  most  incessantly  followed." 

But  surely,  you  say,  the  faculty  knows  all  about  this 
student  life  department  in  its  dual  relation  to  the 
undergraduate,  and  it  has  been  the  subject  of  their 
careful  study  for  years.  Strange  to  say  quite  the  op- 
posite of  this  is  true.  Not  only  have  the  faculty  not 
studied  intelligently  this  plane  of  the  college,  but  ap- 
parently they  have  not  even  fully  recognized  its  existence 
or  realized  its  tremendous  bearing  upon  the  results  of 
their  own  work. 

They  have  been  too  content  to  study  and  to  dis- 
course and  write  upon  constitutional  history  and  the 
political  economy  and  affairs  of  the  state  and  the  city, 
but  they  have  not  analyzed  the  like  conditions  prevail- 
ing within  their  own  walls,  which  palsied  their  own 
best  efforts  and  too  often  proved  a  curse  to  some  of 


The  Student  Llje  Department  69 

their  brightest  and  most  prominent  students.  Often- 
times they  have  not  relaxed  their  efforts  to  work  re- 
forms in  what  they  were  pleased  to  call  the  college, 
when  they  should  have  known  that  they  were  trying  to 
deal  with  the  evils  of  a  single  department  of  the  college. 
The  pedagogical  department  would  not  have  exhibited 
this  fatal  blindness  if  a  proper  and  separate  administra- 
tive department  had  been  at  work  on  the  problems 
which  belonged  to  it  rather  than  to  any  other  depart- 
ment of  the  college. 

Now  that  nearly  forty  per  cent  of  our  entire  popula- 
tion is  in  our  cities,  and  an  even  greater  proportion  of 
our  college  students  come  from  our  urban  population, 
we  must  expect  an  increasing  predominance  of  city 
habits  and  manners,  even  in  country  colleges.  This 
dwelling  in  cities  means,  among  other  things,  that  one's 
community  or  business  life  is  touched  by  a  large  num- 
ber, but  that  it  is  neither  usual  nor  polite  to  meddle  in  a 
fellow-citizen's  home.  This  distinction  is  well  marked 
in  our  colleges,  especially  in  the  larger  urban  institu- 
tions, and  those  without  dormitories,  and  has  been 
increasingly  emphasized  by  the  growth  of  clubs  and 
fraternity  houses.  Nearness  no  longer  implies  neigh- 
borliness,  even  in  college.  Often  students  do  not  know 
the  names  or  faces  of  many  of  their  own  classmates,  for 
they  do  not  meet  them  in  class  room  or  chapel,  and 
merely  pass  them  in  the  street  or  on  the  campus,  or  sit 
with  them  on  the  cheering  benches.  They  ask  that  the 
privacy  of  their  own  college  home  life  shall  be  respected, 
and  they  reciprocate  by  caring  to  know  nothing  of  their 
fellows'  home  life. 


70  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

In  this,  also,  there  is  a  complete  change  from  the 
earlier  times.  If  there  was  then  anything  that  his 
classmates  did  not  know  of  a  fellow-student's  private 
affairs,  it  was  because  of  his  secretiveness ;  but  now  it  is 
because  it  is  recognized  that,  under  college  good  man- 
ners, it  is  none  of  the  other  fellow's  business.  Every 
year  this  view  of  the  privacy  of  the  college  home  be- 
comes better  established  in  student  circles,  especially 
where  the  fraternities  are  strongest.  The  distinction 
between  a  man's  college  community  life  and  his  college 
home  life  is  more  and  more  marked  each  year,  and  this 
must  come  to  be  fully  recognized  by  the  college  itself, 
which  must  appreciate  that  undergraduates  are  no 
longer  schoolboys,  to  be  governed  accordingly,  but  are 
adult  citizens  of  the  college  community,  and  are  to  be 
treated  accordingly.  There  is  now  often  a  tacit  tolera- 
tion of  many  things  in  college  which  would  have  been 
impossible  in  earlier  days.  This  is  because  there  is  no 
recognized  and  modern  way  of  meeting  the  evils  of  this 
plane  of  the  student's  life. 

If  this  citizenship,  with  its  different  aspects  and 
rights,  had  heretofore  been  properly  recognized  and 
studied  by  the  colleges,  they  would  long  ago  have  seen 
that  it  was  necessary  to  preserve  a  clean  and  sane 
college  public  sentiment  if  they  would  have  clean  and 
sane  student  lives  or  homes,  and  that  when  they  lowered 
the  general  college  sentiment  they  were  guilty  of  a 
crime  of  the  same  nature  as  those  who  make  grafting, 
or  other  civic  wrongdoing,  common,  profitable  and  in 
a  sense  respectable.  Yet  that  is  just  what  the  colleges 
themselves,  in  their  haste  for  advertising  and  growth  in 


The  Student  Life  Department  71 

numbers  and  wealth,  have  done  too  often  in  their  inter- 
collegiate athletics  and  in  some  other  departments.1 

Yet  this  is  no  more  surprising  than  the  contem- 
poraneous lowering  of  scholarship  standards  in  our 
colleges,  so  that  they  have  actually  put  a  premium  on 
poor  work.2 

Furthermore,  we  can  see  what  have  been  the  lower- 
ing but  to-be-expected  influences  of  this  greedy  and 
vicious  policy  upon  the  college  home  life.  We  rec- 
ognize the  powerful  and  direct  influence  of  the 
state  and  community,  and  of  public  sentiment  and 
custom  upon  the  home,  and  especially  upon  the  youth 
therein. 

We  also  appreciate  that  men  usually  go  wrong  either 
in  their  community  or  home  lives  and  not  often  in  their 
direct  relations  to  the  state  itself.  Some  men  who  are 
exemplary  in  their  homes  go  wrong  in  their  business 
lives,  while  others  who  are  upright  in  business  do 
grievous  wrong  in  their  home  lives. 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  we  can  best  under- 
stand how,  in  the  broad  sense  of  the  words,  a  man  may 
be  an  "  undesirable  citizen."  He  may  be  undesirable 
because  he  breaks  (a)  the  written  law  of  the  state  and 
becomes  amenable  to  its  penalties;  or  (6)  the  unwritten 
law,  or  the  contractual  regulations,  or  the  spirit  of  good 
faith  and  comity  of  his  business  or  profession  or  com- 
munity; or  (c)  the  moral  or  social  law,  in  any  of  their 
phases,  of  his  home  or  circle;  or  because  he  breaks  the 
law  in  any  two  or  more  of  these  planes  of  his  life.  He 

>  "  Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  Chap.  XXIII. 
2  Ibid.,  Chap.  XXV. 


72  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

may  be  undesirable — and  extremely  so — because,  while 
he  himself  strictly  observes  the  letter  of  the  law,  he  con- 
stantly and  designedly  breaks  its  intent;  or  because  he 
teaches  or  induces  others  to  break  the  law,  or  shows 
them  how  they  may  do  so,  or  so  conducts  himself  as 
to  bring  the  law  into  disrepute.  He  may  hold  high 
political  office  in  the  commonwealth,  yet  so  use  or  mis- 
use that  office,  or  neglect  his  opportunities  therein,  as 
to  bring  the  law  itself  into  disrepute  and  degrade  the 
office,  and  hence  be  an  undesirable  citizen  in  his  civic 
or  political  life.  He  may  hold  high  office  in  a  great 
and  influential  monied  institution  which  guards  and  con- 
trols the  fortunes  and  savings  of  thousands,  and  yet  be 
essentially  dishonest,  dishonorable  and  overreaching, 
and  hence  an  undesirable  citizen  in  his  community, 
business  or  professional  life.  He  may  hold  high  office 
in  the  church  and  exercise  its  chief  functions,  and  lead 
an  exemplary  life,  so  far  as  outward  appearances  and 
the  observances  of  the  church  are  concerned,  and  yet 
be  bigoted,  uncharitable,  cruel  and  hypocritical  in  his 
personal  life;  or  he  may  break  the  spirit  of  the  laws  of 
the  state  or  community  or  church  while  he  observes  the 
letter,  and  hence  be  an  undesirable  citizen.  Judged  by 
this  standard,  there  are  but  few  men  who  are  not  un- 
desirable or  imperfect  citizens  in  some  manner  and  to 
some  degree,  either  in  their  acts  of  omission  or  com- 
mission and  in  some  one  or  more  planes  of  their  lives. 
At  this  point  we  can  understand  the  full  meaning  of  the 
injunction,  "Judge  not  [any  man  in  any  particular 
plane  of  his  life]  that  ye  be  not  judged  [in  that  or  some 
other  plane  of  your  own  life].  For  with  what  judg- 


The  Student  Lije  Department  73 

ment  ye  judge  [another,  in  any  plane  of  his  life,  with 
that  judgment]  ye  shall  be  judged  [in  the  plane  of  your 
life  wherein  ye  are  weak  and  errant]." 

Here  also  we  see  the  full  scope  of  the  duty  of  the 
college  in  training  for  citizenship  each  embryo  citizen 
who  has  been  intrusted  to  its  care.  That  duty  in  its 
highest  sense  is  to  train,  develop  and  make  strong  every 
element  of  desirable  citizenship  of  which  each  under- 
graduate, as  an  individual,  is  capable,  and  to  minimize 
or  prevent  the  growth  of  every  feature  of  his  life  which 
is  likely  to  make  him  an  undesirable  citizen  in  any 
plane  of  his  life  in  his  future  years.  Anything  short  of 
this  is  pro  tanto  a  failure,  alike  in  ideals  and  results, 
upon  the  part  of  the  institution  itself  and  of  its  course. 
It  is  in  this  large  sense  that  the  term  "  training  for  citi- 
zenship" is  used  in  this  book. 

The  reorganized  college  will  clearly  recognize  the 
direct  and  all-powerful  influence  of  the  college  state 
and  of  the  college  sentiment  and  atmosphere  upon  the 
college  homes  and  their  inmates,  and  thus  upon  the 
pedagogical  results;  and  it  will  do  all  in  its  power  to 
foster  those  influences  which  will  improve  that  atmos- 
phere, and  to  counteract  those  which  will  vitiate  it.  In- 
deed it  has  been  well  said  that  a  university  is  not  a 
school  but  an  atmosphere. 

Hence  the  reorganized  college  will  perceive  that  its 
college  community  atmosphere  has  a  great  and  domi- 
nating place  in  its  economy ;  that  it  must  be  reckoned  with 
if  a  perfect  college  reorganization  is  to  be  brought  about; 
and  that  it  must  never  be  left  out  of  future  calculations; 
but  that  the  college  must  attempt  to  regain  at  once,  but 


74  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

wisely,  the  ground  which  it  has  lost  in  this  regard  during 
the  last  forty  years. 

This  college  atmosphere  is  a  delicate  yet  complex 
thing,  and  not  exactly  alike  in  any  two  institutions.  It 
affects  and  is  affected  by  the  most  diverse  interests — by 
those  of  the  locality  in  which  it  is  situated,  and  of  the 
state  which  supplies  its  funds  in  whole  or  in  part,  and 
of  whose  public-school  system  it  may  be  the  capstone; 
by  the  influences  which  its  students  bring  from  pre- 
paratory or  other  fitting  schools  or  from  their  parents' 
homes;  by  the  customs  and  ideals  of  rival  institutions, 
as  well  as  by  those  which  have  crystallized  out  of  the 
college  lives  of  generations  of  its  own  students;  by  the 
standards  of  its  own  faculty  and  of  its  own  constituent 
college  homes.  At  the  same  time  it  has  its  reflex  action 
upon  each  of  the  elements  which  so  strongly  affect  it. 
Is  it  too  much  to  say  that  in  our  recent  history  the 
student  life  department  and  its  relation  to  the  whole 
subject  of  college  education  have  not  been  intelligently 
examined  and  studied,  and  that  this  is  another  great 
reason  why  we  must  now  have  a  radical  reorganization, 
which  shall  recognize,  coordinate  and  correlate  this 
fundamental  department? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   COLLEGE   COMMUNITY   LIFE— -Continued 

THE  college  community  life  forces  itself  upon  our 
attention  largely  in  connection  with  student  govern- 
ment, and  in  intercollegiate  contests  which  are  usually 
in  athletics;  and  these  two  phases  of  this  subject  de- 
mand careful  thought. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  real  government  of  college 
affairs  in  most  of  our  large  institutions  is  by  the  stu- 
dents themselves,  no  matter  how  the  faculty  imagine 
that  they  still  wield  the  power. 

The  college  owes  it  to  the  commonwealth,  to  itself 
and  to  its  undergraduates  that,  so  far  as  possible,  the 
students  shall  be  trained  for  future  citizenship  through 
participation  in  the  government  of  the  college  state. 
Yet  one  college  dean  writes: 

"  Student  government  implies  the  possession  of  mature 
judgment  or  control  of  reason  more  than  most  persons  of 
college  age  possess.  At  that  time  of  life  all  are  more  easily 
moved  by  impulse  and  immediate  advantage.  Experience 
alone  teaches  men  to  seek  an  ultimate  effect  in  preference 
to  a  near-by  vantage.  The  college  life  is  in  this  respect  a 
time  of  transition,  often  of  revolution  in  attitude  and  action." 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  the  wrong  point  from  which 
to  view  this  subject.  The  college  should  be  seeking 
ways  in  which  to  perform  to  the  utmost  its  funda- 

75 


76  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

mental  duty  to  train  its  citizens  to  perform  fully  and 
wisely  their  future  duties  as  citizens  of  the  greater 
state.  Far  better  an  honest  and  intelligent  endeavor  to 
train  wisely  its  student  citizens  for  future  citizenship 
than  the  plea  that  they  are  still  schoolboys  incapable  of 
self-government  and  to  be  governed  by  ancient  college 
methods.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  real  student  govern- 
ment has  usually  been  successful  and  is  bound  to  be 
in  most  cases  where  it  has  a  fair  trial.  It  will  be  suc- 
cessful because  it  is  the  philosophically  correct  way  of 
governing  a  modern  college  state. 

Apparently  student  government  has  not  been  tried 
with  the  distinct  and  avowed  purpose  of  fulfilling  the 
institution's  own  duty  of  training  its  students  for  citi- 
zenship and  of  giving  them  some  idea  of  their  future 
civic  and  political  duties.  Instead  of  treating  student 
government  as  something  to  be  encouraged  and  en- 
larged, it  has  been  regarded  as  a  doubtful  and  danger- 
ous substitute  for  the  earlier  faculty  control  of  disci- 
pline, to  be  handled  gingerly  and  grudgingly.  Instead 
of  making  it  an  affirmative  education,  it  has  been 
treated  as  a  negative  concession  wrung  from  a  half- 
hearted faculty,  who  still  cling  to  the  idea  that  they  are 
schoolmasters  not  mentors,  and  that  discipline  cannot 
be  maintained  except  by  some  survival  of  the  Puritanic 
college  methods.  Thus  do  the  faculty  detract  from  the 
dignity  of  their  own  standing,  and  prefer  to  remain 
proctors  rather  than  be,  in  the  highest  and  best  sense, 
instructors;  and  thus  does  pedagogic  control  prevent 
the  college  from  fully  performing  one  great  duty  which 
it  owes  to  the  commonwealth. 


The  College  Community  Life  77 

There  are  many  representative  men  in  every  college 
class  who  are  fully  qualified  to  bear  the  responsibility  of 
a  proper  system  of  student  government,  and  to  be  the 
better  citizens  in  the  future  because  of  the  load  which 
they  carried  as  students.  Indeed,  one  of  the  striking 
things  about  modern  college  life  is  the  amount  of  busi- 
ness, civic  and  financial  responsibility,  of  one  kind  and 
another,  which  rests  upon  various  students  as  managers, 
captains  or  otherwise,  in  connection  with  student 
activities.  As  a  rule,  these  men,  who  are  held  directly 
accountable  to  their  fellows  and  peers,  do  remarkably 
well  and  get  much  experience  and  knowledge  which  is 
valuable  in  their  future  touch  with  larger  affairs.  It 
also  strikes  a  candid  observer  from  the  student  stand- 
point that  student  government  could  not  have  much 
worse  results  than  those  which  are  laid  herein,  and  in 
many  other  books  upon  the  college,  at  the  door  of 
faculty  government. 

In  fact,  faculty — not  administrative  or  executive- 
management  of  the  student  life  is  almost  as  unphilo- 
sophical,  and  as  detrimental  to  training  for  citizenship, 
as  is  student  management  of  the  instruction,  an  ex- 
ample of  which  can  be  found  in  unrestrained  electives, 
against  which  an  increasing  cry  is  going  up.  This  was 
to  be  expected,  because  a  system  of  unregulated  elec- 
tives is  merely  a  means  of  turning  over  the  pedagogical 
branch  to  the  control  of  the  individual  student. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  academic  year  of  1908-9, 
Columbia  put  into  effect  a  Constitution  of  the  Board  of 
Student  Representatives,  approved  by  the  University 
Council,  April  21,  1908,  a  copy  of  which  is  given  in 


78  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

Appendix  No.  III.  It  is  negative  rather  than  affirma- 
tive, preventive  rather  than  formative,  but  it  is  a  step 
in  the  right  direction. 

Likewise  student  honor  ought  to  be  a  subject  of 
student  rather  than  of  faculty  regulation.  The  rules 
given  below  have  been  in  force  in  Amherst  College  for 
several  years,  and  have  been  successful  because  they 
have  been  backed  by  student  sentiment,  and  they  have 
reacted  upon  and  improved  every  part  of  the  college 
life.  In  all  the  cases  where  sentence  under  the  honor 
system  has  been  passed  against  fraternity  members  at 
Amherst,  it  has  been  anticipated  or  followed  by  sus- 
pension or  expulsion  by  the  student's  own  fraternity. 
But  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  one  instance  where 
such  a  member  had  been  suspended  by  the  local 
chapter  he  was,  against  the  protest  of  the  chapter,  re- 
stored to  membership  by  the  general  convention  of  the 
fraternity,  which  could  not  appreciate  how  cheating 
had  come  to  be  regarded  at  Amherst  after  it  had  been 
put  under  student  control. 

ARTICLE  I 

SECTION  i.  The  honor  system  in  examinations  is  defined 
as  that  system  under  which,  after  the  examination  is  set  by 
the  faculty,  no  faculty  surveillance  is  exercised,  and  under 
which  the  student  body,  through  a  committee,  control  in- 
vestigations concerning  dishonesty  in  examinations. 

SEC.  2.  The  instructor  may  be  present  for  a  few  mo- 
ments at  the  opening  of  the  examination  to  answer  any 
question  that  may  arise. 

SEC.  3.  During  examinations  each  student  shall  have 
perfect  freedom  of  action  and  conversation,  provided  he  does 
not  interfere  with  the  work  of  others. 


The  College  Community  Lije  79 

ARTICLE  II 

SEC.  i.  Each  student  must,  in  order  to  make  his  exam- 
ination valid,  sign  the  following  declaration:  "I  pledge  my 
honor  that  I  have  neither  given  nor  received  aid  in  this  ex- 
amination." A  similar  statement  may  be  required  in  case 
of  a  written  examination,  essay  or  oration,  but  in  case  of  no 
other  work. 

SEC.  2.  Violations  of  the  honor  system  shall  consist  in  any 
attempt  to  receive  assistance  from  written  or  printed  aids, 
or  from  any  person  or  his  paper;  or  any  attempt  to  give  as- 
sistance, whether  the  one  so  doing  has  completed  his  paper 
or  not.  This  rule  shall  hold  within  and  without  the  exam- 
ination room  during  the  entire  time  in  which  the  examination 
is  in  progress,  that  is,  until  the  time  specified  has  expired. 

ARTICLE  III 

SEC.  i.  There  shall  be  a  committee  consisting  of  six  mem- 
bers who  shall  represent  the  student  body  and  deal  with  all 
cases  involving  violations  of  the  honor  system. 

SEC.  2.  The  members  of  this  committee  shall  be  the  pres- 
idents of  the  four  classes  and  two  others,  one  a  member  of 
the  senior  class  and  one  a  member  of  the  junior  class. 

SEC.  3.  The  president  of  the  senior  class  shall  be  chairman 
of  the  committee,  and  the  president  of  the  junior  class  shall 
be  clerk. 

ARTICLE  IV 

SEC.  i .  In  case  of  apparent  fraud  in  examination,  the  de- 
tector shall  first  speak  to  the  offending  party.  Should  the 
offender  show  there  is  a  mistake,  the  matter  drops  at  once. 
Otherwise  it  is  carried  to  the  committee,  who  shall  conduct 
a  formal  investigation  and  should  the  offender  be  found 
guilty  he  has  the  privilege  of  appeal  to  the  faculty.  In  case 
of  conviction  the  committee  shall  determine  the  punishment 
under  the  following  regulations: 

i .  In  case  of  violation  of  the  honor  system  by  a  member 
of  the  senior,  junior  or  sophomore  class,  the  penalty  shall 
be  a  recommendation  to  the  faculty  of  his  separation  from 
college. 


&o  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

2.  In  case  of  the  violation  of  the  said  system  by  a  member 
of  the  freshman  class,  the  penalty  shall  be  recommendation 
of  suspension  for  a  term  determined  by  the  committee. 

3.  Five  out  of  six  votes  shall  in  all  cases  be  necessary  for 
conviction. 

4.  All  men  who  have  been  in  the  college  one  (i)  year  or 
more  shall  be  judged  by  the  same  rule  as  seniors,  juniors  and 
sophomores.     Those  who  have  been  in  the  college  for  less 
than  one  (i)  year  shall  be  judged  by  the  rule  which  applies 
to  freshmen. 

ARTICLE  V 

SEC.  i.  Every  student  in  the  college  shall  be  expected  to 
lend  his  aid  in  maintaining  this  constitution. 

ARTICLE  VI 

SEC.  i.  This  constitution  may  be  amended  by  a  three- 
fourths  vote  of  those  present  at  a  mass  meeting,  notice  hav- 
ing been  given  at  least  one  week  previous. 

ARTICLE  VII 

SEC.,  i.  The  committee  shall  make  provision  for  interpret- 
ing the  honor  system  to  the  members  of  the  freshman  class 
within  three  weeks  after  the  opening  of  the  first  term  of  each 
year. 

SEC.  2.  This  constitution  shall  be  posted  in  lecture  rooms, 
on  college  bulletin  boards,  and  in  the  library. 

SEC.  3.  This  constitution  shall  be  published  in  the  Student 
three  times  each  year,  the  first  number  of  the  first  semester, 
the  last  number  before  the  final  examinations  of  the  first 
semester,  and  the  last  number  before  the  final  examinations 
of  the  second  semester. 

Evidently  little  progress  has  been  made  in  student 
government.  From  articles  in  Religious  Education  for 
February,  1907,  and  February,  1908,  it  appears  that 
this  important  agency  of  the  college  is  practically  unde- 
veloped. In  a  few  cases  student  government  has  been 


The  College  Community  Life  81 

pretty  fairly  and  successfully  tried.  In  far  more  in- 
stances a  modified  form  of  cooperation  between  stu- 
dents and  faculty  has  been  adopted.  The  experiment 
is  usually  viewed  from  the  wrong  point  of  view.  There 
is  a  disinclination  to  swing  from  the  parental  form  of 
government  to  the  ideal  of  a  self-governing  community. 
It  is  far  better  to  let  the  students  be  responsible  for  the 
regulation  of  their  community  affairs,  even  if  they  make 
many  errors  and  failures,  than  to  keep  them  in  leading 
strings.  The  college  claims  to  be  training  future  citi- 
zens, but  she  treats  them  as  boys.  She  can  never  do 
her  whole  duty  to  the  state  until  she  has  worked  out  and 
applied  a  form  of  college  polity  which  puts  some  civic 
duty  for  the  college  upon  every  student  and  makes  him 
bear  some  of  the  burdens  of  college  citizenship.  The 
college  should  be  in  the  highest  sense  an  experiment 
station  in  citizenship.  If  the  George  Jr.  Republic  can 
be  successful  with  wild  boys  under  eighteen,  surely  the 
college  community  affairs  ought  to  be  safe  in  the  hands 
of  the  students,  for  they  will  be  largely  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  most  mature  and  sagacious  seniors  and 
juniors.  Certainly  the  institution  can  never  fulfill  its 
duty  to  the  commonwealth  until  it  does  its  utmost  to 
train  citizens  who  shall  be  able  and  willing  to  exercise 
leadership  in  civic  affairs  in  after  years. 

But  right  here  many  colleges  are  evidently  misap- 
prehending the  distinction  between  the  community  and 
home  lives  of  their  citizens,  and  are  apt  to  think  that 
college  government  should  extend  to  the  students'  per- 
sonal habits.  These  must  be  reached  through  the 
college  homes.  Even  in  the  commonwealth  prohibition 


82  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

and  excise  laws  relate  to  the  public  trafficking  in  liquors 
and  not  to  the  private  use  of  them  in  the  home.  The 
state  does  not  make  laws  saying  that  the  citizen  shall 
not  drink  intoxicating  liquors  in  his  home,  but  merely 
regulates  the  manufacturing  and  public  sale  of  those 
liquors.  In  all  such  matters  the  law  only  goes  to  the 
length  of  regulating  trade,  which  is  a  function  of  the 
community  life,  and  does  not  dictate  what  shall  be  the 
private  habits  of  the  individual,  for  that  comes  within 
the  sanctity  of  his  home  life.  It  is  not  wise  to  regulate 
the  use  of  tobacco  and  other  personal  habits  by  college 
law  and  ordinance.  This  weakens  all  government,  be- 
cause it  is  an  improper  and  unphilosophical  assump- 
tion of  authority  by  the  central  power.  These  things 
should  be  reached  through  the  homes  which,  more 
than  anything  else,  affect  the  personal  habits  of  the 
individual. 

Let  us,  therefore,  reorganize  our  colleges  upon  the 
theory  that,  so  far  as  is  possible,  our  embryo  citizens 
are  to  be  trained,  during  their  course,  in  all  that  is  high- 
est and  best  in  citizenship,  instead  of  being  held  in 
leading  strings.  If  we  are  to  make  mistakes — and  we 
have  made  and  shall  make  many — let  them  be  in  the 
line  of  progress,  rather  than  in  that  of  ignorance  and 
blindness;  for  an  enlightened  student  government  will 
solve  many  of  the  problems  which  now  seem  almost 
insurmountable. 

Intimately  connected  with  student  government  in  the 
college  community  life  is  the  question  of  athletics  and 
recreation;  and  in  considering  athletics  we  must  not 
overlook  the  fact  that  college  athletics  are  primarily  for 


The  College  Community  Life  83 

relaxation,  recreation  and  health,  and  hence,  indirectly, 
for  better  intellectual  work  in  college  and  for  greater 
efficiency  in  after  life.  We  are  too  apt  to  think  that 
they  are  for  the  honor  and  advertising  of  Alma  Mater. 

We  must  also  recognize  that  the  physical  education  of 
the  undergraduate,  like  the  other  branches  of  his  college 
education,  must  regard  his  past,  present  and  future,  and 
must  be  founded  upon  a  scientific  knowledge  of  the 
actual  and  probable  needs  of  the  individual.  Hence  we 
should  strive  for  at  least  the  four  following  results  in  our 
system  of  physical  education,  and  also  we  should  at- 
tempt to  make  these  clear  to  the  undergraduate  body 
so  that  college  sentiment  will  aid  ii>: 

(a)  The  ascertainment  of  the  physical  defects  and 
shortcomings  of  each  individual,  and  his  development, 
so  far  as  possible,  into  a  well-rounded  man  physically. 

(b)  The  maintenance  of  a  perfect  physical  condition 
for  each  student  during  these  four  years. 

(c)  Since  most  of  the  students  will,  after  college,  live 
a  sedentary  life,  a  preparation  for  preserving  perfect 
health  under  such  untoward  conditions. 

(rf)  The  recreation  which  is  a  legitimate  and  even 
necessary  end  in  any  system  of  college  or  intercollegiate 
athletics,  and  in  many  instances  the  most  important 
factor  therein.  If  we  can  keep  all  of  these  desiderata 
before  our  minds,  many  things  will  appear  simpler  to 
us.  Let  us  consider  these  objects  more  in  detail. 

(a)  The  first  thing  essential  is  to  know  the  true 
physical  condition  of  each  student,  and  this  is  much 
more  important  than  we  are  apt  to  think.  Many  a  boy 
athlete  coming  to  college  has,  by  overstraining,  already 


84  The  Reorganization  o)  Our  Colleges 

sown  the  seeds  of  permanent  ill  health  or  of  an  early 
death,  and  special  care  must  be  exercised  that  these 
unfortunate  results  do  not  follow.  There  are  dangers 
of  the  age  of  puberty  in  boys  just  as  in  girls.  At  this 
period  of  life  the  chief  strength  of  the  boy  should  be 
given  to  the  readjustment  of  his  physical  nature,  which 
may  take  two  or  three  years.  It  is  most  dangerous  at 
this  time  to  attempt  to  put  his  heart  to  the  strain  of 
track  races  and  other  athletics  which  try  the  hearts 
even  of  well-developed  adults.  Many  schoolboys,  who 
have  made  wonderful  athletic  records  at  fourteen  or 
sixteen  years,  have  been  laid  on  the  shelf  at  nineteen 
or  twenty;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  best  college 
athletes  are  often  those  who  have  had  a  normal  growth 
during  boyhood,  and  who  have  systematically  taken  up 
athletics  only  after  they  have  finished  school.  The 
entering  freshmen  show  the  same  difference  in  physical 
as  in  intellectual  conditions.  Hence  we  must  first  see 
to  it  that  each  man  has  the  physical  exercises  that  will 
develop  in  him,  in  a  sane  way,  the  best  physique  that  is 
in  him,  to  the  end  that  he  may  be  able  to  do  his  best 
for  the  state,  himself  and  those  dependent  upon  him  in 
the  future;  that  is,  not  to  develop  him  into  a  prize 
winner,  but  into  perfect  manhood  so  far  as  may  be.  A 
compulsory  course  in  boxing,  fencing  or  dancing  would 
have  saved  many  a  good  student  from  becoming  a 
pedant,  or  from  being  awkward  and  ungainly  or  pusil- 
lanimous, by  developing  in  him  the  physical  and  social 
traits  which  he  lacked  and  which  he  must  get  in  college 
if  ever;  and  thus  would  have  made  him  a  more  efficient 
citizen  in  after  years, 


The  College  Community  Life  85 

(b)  In  some  ways  the  life  of  a  college  student  is  not 
conducive  to  a  perfect  physical  condition.     Overstudy 
as  well  as  overindulgence  in  social  or  other  distractions 
may  impair  his  health.    Hence  it  must  be  an  admitted 
aim  of  physical  training  in  college  to  maintain  all  the 
students  in  the  best  of  health,  to  the  end  that  they  may 
do  the  best  possible  work  in  their  course  and  be  started 
in  their  life  work  without  physical  handicap. 

(c)  President  Eliot  was  right  when  he  recently  said 
that  football  was  a  game  that  would  not  be  used  by  the 
ordinary  college  graduate  in  after  life.     Unfortunately, 
the  same  is  true  of  most  other  sports.    Most  graduates 
of  college  follow  a  sedentary  life  in  after  years.    Physi- 
cal education  in  the  colleges  must  be  varied  so  as  to 
teach  some  courses  of  resistance  movements  and  other 
forms  of  home  gymnastics  which  shall,  later  in  life,  be 
available  for  the  busy  lawyer,  or  clergyman  or  mer- 
chant, and  through  which  he  can  preserve  his  health. 
Even  as  it  is,  our  undergraduates  learn  from  the  pro- 
fessional coach  or  trainer  many  points  as  to  hygiene  and 
health  which  were  utterly  unknown  a  few  years  ago,  and 
which  are  not  a  part  of  the  curriculum  of  the  college 
itself.     But  there  should  be  a  distinct  recognition  by  the 
institution  of  the  value  of  setting  up  exercises  and  of 
forms  of  gymnastics  which  can  be  used  without  ap- 
paratus in  a  graduate's  room  or  office,  and  which  thus 
shall  serve  as  a  preparation  for  the  preservation  of 
health  after  college. 

(d)  Older  men  are  apt  to  overlook  the  element  of 
recreation  which  is  and  should  be  an  important  factor  in 
the  physical  exercises  of  youth.    There  can  and  should 


86  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

be  plenty  of  interest,  fun,  frolic  and  competition  in 
college  sports  and  games.  So  far  as  possible  these 
exercises  should  be  spontaneous  and  entertaining  and 
not  merely  perfunctory.  If  a  student  works  hard,  he 
should  play  as  well  and  in  many  cases  play  hard.  In 
one  sense  the  pendulum  has,  in  modern  times,  swung 
clear  away  from  the  old-fashioned  student  who  had  all 
work  and  no  play,  to  the  point  where  the  recreative  side 
of  college  has  been  much  overstimulated.  We  can  have 
more  intramural  and  a  little  less  of  intercollegiate  con- 
tests; but,  as  reorganizers,  let  us  not  forget  the  value 
and  necessity  of  true  recreation  in  the  life  of  a  young 
man  of  from  eighteen  to  twenty-two  years  of  age.  Thus 
our  course  of  physical  training  will  take  account  of  the 
past,  present  and  future  of  each  student,  and  put  into 
the  life  of  each  as  much  recreation  as  the  other  demands 
of  the  college  will  allow. 

But  athletics  and  recreation  belong  largely  to  the 
college  community  life  and  must  be  treated  therein  by 
the  agencies  which  are  effective  therein,  and  that  is 
chiefly  by  an  enlightened  college  sentiment.  This  im- 
plies a  proper  attempt  to  make  the  student  body  under- 
stand what  the  college  is  striving  to  accomplish,  and 
to  educate  college  sentiment  accordingly.  The  best 
course  is  likely  to  be  a  middle  one  between  that  pro- 
posed by  the  faculty  and  that  demanded  by  the  stu- 
dents; but  the  latter  are  entitled  to  be  heard,  since  the 
controversy  arises  within  the  realm  of  the  student  life 
department.  Ordinary  expediency  would  suggest  con- 
ciliation and  agreement  rather  than  force.  This  course 
will  tend  to  improve  conditions  in  the  college  state  and 


The  College  Community  Life  87 

make  other  reforms  possible.  Star  chamber  reforms 
in  athletics,  or  in  anything  else  within  the  realm  of 
the  student  life,  are  unwise  and  unfair,  and,  therefore, 
likely  to  be  ineffectual.  The  last  thing  that  the  faculty 
ought  or  needs  to  do  in  a  well-organized  institution  is  to 
outrage  college  sentiment,  and  show  its  power  to  en- 
force its  rulings.  Wherever  a  fair  course  with  the 
undergraduate  body  has  been  honestly  and  impartially 
tried,  it  has  been  successful  in  direct  ratio  to  the  honesty 
and  intelligence  shown  in  its  application. 

But  it  is  quite  within  the  province  of  the  college  to 
limit,  if  necessary,  the  undue  interference  of  student 
activities  with  other  college  duties;  as  by  limiting  the 
number  of  intercollegiate  contests,  or  of  concerts,  or 
trips  for  outside  purposes  which  shall  receive  the  col- 
lege approval.  The  college  must  also  insist  upon  some 
oversight  of  the  college  home  and  some  assurance  that 
its  atmosphere  and  influence  shall  be  uplifting;  but, 
as  will  be  shown  later,  the  real  uplift  in  this  respect 
must  come  from  within  the  home  and  not  through 
college  regulations.  When  the  college  homes  have  been 
properly  cleaned  up,  an  enlightened  public  sentiment 
will  follow  as  a  matter  of  course.  All  this  must  be  done 
in  entire  accord  with  the  public  sentiment  of  the  college, 
rather  than  by  arbitrary  laws  which  have  no  college 
sentiment  behind  them. 

There  should  be  connected  with  the  administrative 
department  of  every  college  one  or  more  men,  of  the 
very  highest  type,  equipped  along  the  lines  suggested  in 
a  recent  address  by  President  Jesse  of  the  University  of 
Missouri: 


88  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

"It  is  a  shame  that  every  university — possibly  some  of 
them  already  do  it — does  not  have  on  good  salary  one 
layman  at  least,  with  a  head  full  of  common  sense,  a  heart 
full  of  righteousness,  slightly  connected  with  teaching,  but 
really  free  for  efforts  to  raise  to  the  highest  the  life  of  the 
students.  He  ought  to  be  capable  of  moving,  like  pawns  on 
a  chessboard,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  every  local  church,  the  fra- 
ternities, the  University  Club,  the  president,  the  deans,  the 
teachers,  the  Athletic  Association,  and  every  power  in  the 
community.  Such  a  man,  giving  a  course  of  say  three  hours 
a  week  in  ethics  and  the  rest  of  his  time  to  this  work,  could 
accomplish  much.  As  his  work  grows,  he  ought  to  have 
assistants. " 

This  suggestion  is  in  the  right  line,  but  it  does  not  go 
far  enough.  It  shows,  however,  that  the  proper  way 
for  the  college  government  to  reach  the  student  life, 
either  in  the  college  community  life  or  in  the  college 
home,  is  through  "the  power  of  a  man"  and  not 
through  the  command  of  an  ordinance.  In  the  per- 
sonal and  moral  relations  of  the  student  citizens  to  each 
other  and  to  their  own  homes,  the  college  must  keep 
close  touch  through  the  human  agent  rather  than 
through  the  printed  law.  The  college  administration 
will  provide  and  pay  this  human  agent,  but  there  must 
pervade  the  student  body  the  feeling  that  this  man  is 
their  friend,  adviser,  advocate  and  sympathizer,  and 
the  whole  college  government  must  respect  and  foster 
this  confidential  relation  of  their  own  representative  to 
the  students — singly  and  collectively. 

But  this  man — and  many  others  of  the  same  caliber 
and  qualifications — will  be  distinctively  in  the  adminis- 
trative and  not  in  the  instructional  department,  and  will 
be  far  too  busy  and  important  to  spend  time  in  teaching. 


The  College  Community  Lije  89 

Our  new  administrative  department  will  appreciate 
how  important  the  college  community  life  is  in  paying 
the  institution's  debts  to  the  commonwealth,  and  to  its 
own  students  and  their  parents,  and  to  its  own  faculty 
and  reputation.  The  college  will  strive  constantly  and 
earnestly  to  prepare  itself  to  pay  these  debts  by  apply- 
ing to  itself  the  very  best  administrative  methods  which 
other  and  ever  larger  public-service  corporations  adopt 
to  enable  them  to  pay  the  debts  which  they  have  as- 
sumed to  the  state,  to  their  own  employees  and  to  those 
who  depend  upon  .these,  and  to  their  own  stock- 
holders, creditors  and  confreres. 

The  importance  in  the  college  economy  of  the  col- 
lege community  life,  and  of  wisely  managing  it  and  the 
problems  which  it  produces,  will  be  even  more  evident 
after  we  have  considered  carefully  the  college  home 
life,  which  touches  and  mingles  with  it  at  every  point. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   COLLEGE  HOME  LIFE 

LET  us  still  further  contract  our  field  of  discussion  of 
the  student  life,  and  consider  that  portion  of  this  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  undergraduate's  time  which  is  spent,  not 
on  the  campus,  or  in  athletics,  or  in  touch  with  the  main 
student  body,  but  in  the  close  companionship  of  his 
intimates  or  the  comparative  seclusion  of  his  college 
home,  and  which  we  shall  call  his  college  home  or  fam- 
ily life. 

A  moment's  thought  will  make  us  realize  that  a  col- 
lege student  must  have  some  kind  of  home  life  dur- 
ing the  four  years  which  intervene  between  his  parents' 
home  and  that  in  which  he  will  be  the  breadwinner.  If 
we  had  carefully  thought  out  this  dual  nature  of  the 
student  life  we  should  long  ago  have  perceived  that 
many  things  in  college,  which  we  loosely  think  of  as 
social,  belong  in  fact  to  the  home  life.  We  should  not 
confuse  the  social  and  home  factors  in  any  instance. 
The  college  home  life  may  be  dwarfed,  hidden,  almost 
unrecognizable — but  it  will  be  there.  It  may  be  spent 
in  luxury  or  penury;  in  a  dormitory,  in  a  village  or  city 
boarding  place,  or  in  a  fraternity  house;  it  may  be 
harmful,  helpful  or  neutral — but  it  will  be  there,  and 
essentially  like  any  other  home  life  in  its  nature  and 

9o 


The  College  Home  Lije  91 

effects,  and  in  the  manner  in  which  it  can  be  affected 
and  molded  for  better  or  worse. 

In  influence  and  effect  it  closely  resembles  the  stu- 
dent's boyhood  home,  for  it  largely  determines,  possibly 
throughout  life,  the  purity  or  impurity  of  his  thoughts, 
habits  and  language;  his  personal  power  over  his  fellow- 
men,  or,  in  college  phrase,  his  ability  as  a  "mixer";  his 
intellectual  and  moral  attainments ;  and  his  readiness  to 
receive  and  assimilate  religious  impressions.  In  other 
words,  it  affects,  in  every  plane,  his  life  as  a  citizen  in 
college  and  in  after  years. 

There  is  this  strictly  home  life  for  every  college 
student  which  in  large  part  decides  the  character  of 
the  soil  into  which  the  good  seed  shall  fall — especially 
when  the  seed  is  moral  or  religious  in  character — and 
this  home  life  is  where  the  earlier  good  influences  of 
the  parents'  home  are  most  frequently  undone  and  de- 
stroyed and  the  seeds  of  moral  decay  are  sown.  It  will 
often  depend  upon  his  college  home  life  whether  the 
student  is  open  to  the  higher  religious  and  moral  lessons 
which  cannot  usually  be  impressed  in  the  modern  class 
room  or  lecture,  but  which  must  come,  if  they  come  at 
all,  through  other  agencies. 

(  One  great  cause  for  the  falling  off  of  candidates  for 
the  ministry  will  be  found  in  the  neglect  of  the  college 
home  life  of  the  young  men  who  leave  their  parents' 
homes  with  high  religious  ideals  and  purposes,  but  who 
are  soon  diverted  from  any  high  aims  by  the  noxious 
atmosphere  of  their  college  homes.  This  part  of  the 
institution  must  be  purified  and  uplifted,  or  else  most 
religious  instruction  and  power  will  be  largely  wasted — 


92  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

and  through  our  own  shortsightedness.  The  home  is 
the  great  foundation  for  widespread  and  continuing  re- 
ligious growth,  and  this  is  true  in  regard  to  the  college 
home. 

If,  then,  we  are  to  hope  to  make  any  radical,  con- 
tinuing and  widespread  improvement  in  college  moral 
and  religious  conditions,  we  must  begin  in  the  lives  of 
the  college  homes,  which  the  institution  itself  can  never 
greatly  influence,  because  as  a  quasi  state  it  cannot  in- 
terfere in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  the  home,  and  because 
interference  from  without  in  such  affairs  is  usually  re- 
sented and  seldom  helpful.  The  college  can  perma- 
nently and  wisely  affect  the  life  of  its  homes  chiefly 
through  its  human  agents  and  their  personal  influence 
for  good  with  those  who  from  time  to  time  govern  or 
are  responsible  for  the  home's  life. 

The  influence  of  the  personal  character  of  the  teacher, 
which  we  should  never  lose,  will  come  through  his 
manhood  working  on  the  manhood  of  others,  and  not 
through  his  teaching  or  learning  as  such.  But  the  soil 
of  the  home  life  must  be  kept  open  and  rich  chiefly 
through  the  personal  influence  and  example  of  those 
who  are  in  touch  with  it  daily  and  hourly,  and  who 
know  it  through  and  through.  Here  the  college  is  on 
solid  ground. 

This  college  home  life  must  be  affirmatively  enno- 
bling and  uplifting  or  it  will  be  quite  the  contrary.  It 
must  be  constantly  affected  by  strong  and  usually  older 
characters,  whose  influence  must  be  exerted,  silently  but 
surely,  within  itself.  It  must  have  a  power  for  good, 
inherent  in  itself,  and  must  not  expect  to  find  any  true 


The  College  Home  Life  93 

substitute  for  this  in  some  mystic  influences  that  the 
college,  or  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  or  any  other  extrinsic  agency, 
institutional  in  its  nature,  can  exercise  from  without. 
Our  tendency  is  to  look  to  institutions  and  organizations 
to  do  those  things  which  can  be  accomplished  only  by 
ourselves.  These  outside  agencies  are  artificial  creatures 
which  may  stimulate  and  inspire,  but  which  can  never 
supplant  the  normal  home  force. 

As  no  state,  community  or  institution  can  or  should 
usurp  our  place  as  parents  in  our  own  home,  so  neither 
the  college  nor  the  faculty  as  a  body,  especially  in  the 
large  universities,  should  be  expected  to  control  directly 
the  college  home  lives  of  the  students,  for  they  can  never 
take  the  place  of  an  inherent  and  osmotic  force  working 
from  within — in  the  absence  of  which  there  can  be  no 
true  home. 

But  this  force  must  be  permanent — not  shifting  from 
year  to  year.  It  must  have  real  authority — even  if  it 
uses  only  moral  suasion.  It  must  rule  by  the  consent 
of  the  governed  and  because  they  appreciate  that  it 
works  for  their  best  good.  It  must^have  power  away 
from  the  home  as  well  as  within  its  walls — and  follow 
the  student,  even  to  the  strange  city,  and  everywhere 
nerve  him  against  the  terrible  temptations  which  con- 
stantly beset  him.  Whether  it  be  good,  bad  or  in- 
different, there  is  such  a  moral  force  at  work  in  every 
college  home.  Except  as  this  force  is  ennobled  we  can- 
not hope  for  permanent  religious  or  moral  improvement 
among  our  students;  and  it  must  be  Ennobled  by  human 
example  and  sympathy  and  not  by  institutional  or- 
dinance. In  this  respect  the  college  home  of  the  young 


94  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

student  resembles  the  boarding  schools  of  which  Dr. 
Endicott  Peabody,  head  master  of  the  Groton  School, 
says: 

"They  [boarding  schools]  are  likely  to  become  very  bad  if 
they  are  not  positively  good,  for  boys  are  great  missionaries 
for  good  or  for  evil.  And  so  you  must  get  the  older  boys 
interested  in  the  school.  They  must  be  so  led  as  to  really 
care  for  its  best  life,  and  to  see  that  they  are  only  loyal  to  the 
school  when  they  are  serving  its  higher  interests.  In  this 
way  the  community  can  be  made  thoroughly — thoroughly — 
wholesome,  and  it  will  not  be  a  "Fool's  Paradise,"  as  some 
of  our  institutions  are,  but  a  place  in  which  it  is  a  delight 
and  inspiration  to  live." 

We  have  spent  much  thought  and  money  upon  the 
pedagogical  departments  of  our  colleges,  but  very,  very 
little  in  studying  the  college  home  life.  Yet  this  is  not 
the  least  important  of  the  college  departments,  since  it 
largely  determines  the  effectiveness  of  the  others  upon 
individual  students.  It  was  the  most  important  in  our 
forefathers'  eyes,  for  they  saw  that  only  through  it 
could  they  prepare  the  good  ground  for  the  good  seed 
and  make  good  citizens.  We  are  blameworthy  if,  while 
improving  the  seed  and  the  sowers,  we  have  neglected 
the  preparation  of  the  soil.  We  must  bend  every  energy 
to  restore  the  college  home  life  to  its  proper  relative 
place  in  the  college  economy  and  coordinate  it  with  the 
other  factors  therein. 

The  forefathers  were  right  in  believing  that  this  good- 
ness of  the  ground  could  be  secured  only  through  the 
direct  and  intimate  touch  of  the  older  man  upon  the 
younger.  But  how,  in  our  large  institutions  and  under 
modern  conditions,  are  we  to  bring  about  a  close  touch 


The  College  Home  Lije  95 

between  the  students  and  older  men  which  shall  con- 
stantly uplift  the  younger  men  in  their  college  family 
lives?  Is  there  any  agency  through  which  this  is  being 
or  can  be  done?  Or  anything  to  indicate  that  up  to  the 
present  time  only  one  such  agency  has  been  developed 
in  a  large  way?  If,  under  modern  conditions,  there  has 
been  any  distinct  and  widespread  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  the  college  home,  we  should  study  it  most  care- 
fully and  with  an  open  mind,  and,  if  possible,  seek  by 
it  to  improve  the  soil  in  which  we  are  fruitlessly  sowing 
so  much  good  seed,  and  use  it  as  a  model  for  building 
up  other  helpful  homes  which  shall  embrace  every  stu- 
dent. \ 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   GREEK-LETTER   FRATERNITIES   AND    THE 
COLLEGE  HOME 

AT  first  the  Greek-letter  fraternities  were  mere  college 
secret  societies.  In  their  second  stage  they  became 
social  bodies,  with  a  secret  lodge  room  and  lodge  night, 
but  with  few  other  cohesive  factors  within  the  chapter 
itself  or  between  the  various  chapters.  In  their  present 
and  third  period  they  have  developed  into  home-build- 
ing agencies,  wherein  many  rich  and  influential  alumni 
and  earnest  and  energetic  undergraduates  are  laboring 
together  to  erect  college  homes,  and  thereby  solve  to  a 
limited  extent  the  modern  problems  in  the  home  life 
arising  out  of  increasing  numbers  and  changed  dormi- 
tory and  social  conditions. 

As  we  look  back  we  can  perceive  how  inevitable  it 
was  that,  as  fast  and  as  far  as  the  college  ceased  to  pro- 
vide true  college  homes,  the  students  and  alumni  must 
provide  substitutes;  and  for  this  the  fraternities  fur- 
nished the  natural  instrumentality,  for  they  were  in 
close  touch  with  many  rich  and  influential  alumni,  and 
were  such  keen  rivals  that  each  was  sure  to  copy  any 
such  radical  step  in  advance  as  the  building  of  chapter 
houses.  The  only  home  controlled  by  the  college 
which  at  all  resembles  that  of  the  older  institutions  now 
survives  in  a  few  of  the  women's  colleges  with  their 

96 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home         97 

small  and  separate  dormitory  houses,  where  many  of 
the  students  room  and  eat.  But  all  the  women  in  these 
institutions  comprise  less  than  three  per  cent  of  our 
college  and  university  students,  and  therefore  the  few 
dormitory  houses  which  they  possess  house  even  a 
smaller  percentage  of  the  total  college  membership. 
As  to  the  rest  of  the  students  (ninety-seven  per  cent), 
the  tendency  as  to  college  homes  has  been  decidedly  in 
an  opposite  direction.  The  state  colleges  and  univer- 
sities contain  more  than  one  half  of  all  the  students ! 
and  their  enrollment  is  increasing  at  about  twice  the 
rate  of  that  of  the  private  institutions  (ante,  p.  8).  But 
the  state  universities,  following  the  German  custom  for 
the  most  part,  have  provided  practically  no  dormi- 
tories, but  have  relegated  their  students  to  the  execrable 
boarding  houses  of  a  typical  college  town.  One  state 
university  president  writes: 

"  We  have  a  strong  feeling  in  a  university  town  like  this, 
where  there  are  2,300  students  in  a  town  of  10,000,  that  we 
can  maintain  the  home  life  of  students  by  really  dissemi- 
'nating  them  in  homes.  We  find,  however,  that  there  is  a 
tendency  to  boarding  houses  and  distressingly  poor  living, 
hence  our  movement  looking  toward  the  commons  with  cer- 
tain dormitory  privileges.  The  fraternities  are  aiding  us  by 
having  their  own  homes.  We  are  now  tending  toward  the 
erection  of  a  commons  social  headquarters,  and  with  some 
dormitory  privileges.  It  is  estimated  that  the  universities 
by  furnishing  lodging  to  not  exceed  twenty- five  per  cent  of 
their  students  may  be  able  to  regulate  the  sanitary  and  moral 
accommodations  in  the  homes  that  are  open  to  students." 

In  the  very  mail  which  brought  this  letter  I  received 
a  college  paper  in  which  an  undergraduate  wrote  of 

1  "  Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  p.  138. 


98  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

"the  homeless  waifs  of  this  dormitory-scarce  college," 
although  twenty  per  cent  of  his  fellows  were  housed  in 
the  ancient  college  dormitories  and  almost  fifty  per 
cent  in  fraternity  houses. 

How  such  a  letter  illumines  the  growth  of  the  Greek- 
letter  fraternity  homes.  What  is  there  homelike  or 
home-making  about  the  average  cheap  boarding  house 
of  a  college  town.  On  the  contrary,  for  the  student  its 
tendency  is  rather  "to  drive  him  to  drink,"  or  some- 
thing worse.  The  above  letter,  written  in  1908,  shows 
how  the  college  must  be  looking  backward  when  it 
has  "a  strong  feeling"  that  a  country  town  of  10,000 
inhabitants  (and  even  the  very  best  university  town,  as 
that  one  undoubtedly  was)  can  possibly  furnish  uplift- 
ing and  ennobling  homes  for  one  quarter  as  many  stu- 
dents. Is  it  any  wonder  that  beautiful  and  attractive 
fraternity  houses  have  multiplied  when  the  colleges  have 
avowedly  pursued  the  policy  of  making  a  boarding 
house  in  a  college  town  the  best  home  that  the  institu- 
tions themselves  can  offer?  Modern  dormitories  repre- 
sent a  permanent  investment  of  from  $500  to  $2,000  for 
every  student  housed;  and  for  some  of  the  fraternity 
houses  even  more,  for  they  contain  beautiful  living 
rooms,  dining  rooms  and  kitchens,  in  addition  to  the 
studies  and  sleeping  rooms.  That  is,  a  modern  dormi- 
tory to  house  loo  students  costs  from  $100,000  to  $200,- 
ooo,  or  even  more.  Is  there  any  wonder  that  the  colleges 
have  been  perfectly  willing  to  allow  their  alumni  to  put 
up  fraternity  houses  at  large  cost,  thus  enabling  the  insti- 
tutions to  put  their  capital  into  other  things?  Is  it  not 
plainly  evident  why  the  fraternities  have  grown  apace? 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home         99 

The  growth  of  fraternity  houses  has  changed  the 
center  of  gravity  of  the  student  body.  Formerly  the 
college  homes  of  the  strong  upper  classmen  were  in  the 
dormitories  and  the  under  classmen  roomed  outside  if 
necessary.  Now  in  many  colleges  the  dormitories  house 
the  freshmen,  while  the  fraternity  buildings  are  the  col- 
lege homes  of  the  influential  upper  classmen,  and  thus 
the  center  of  student  sentiment — at  least  in  the  East 
and  Middle  West. 

We  continue  to  regard  the  fraternities  as  mere  secret 
societies,  and  hence  to  give  undue  significance  to  their 
secret  -features,  failing  to  realize  how  much  more  im- 
portant are  their  home  features;  and  that  it  is  chiefly 
through  improving  the  atmosphere  of  these  homes— 
not  because  they  are  fraternity  houses,  but  because  they 
are  the  only  typical  and  distinctive  homes  of  the  ordinary 
college,  and  the  homes  for  four  years  of  many  of  its 
most  influential  students — that  we  can  hope  for  better 
moral  and  religious  results  among  our  undergraduates. 

It  needs  no  prophetic  eye  to  see  that  the  fraternities 
will  soon  fully  enter  upon  their  fourth  or  endowment 
period  in  which,  their  home-building  substantially  fin- 
ished, the  wealth  and  energies  of  each  college  home,  or 
series  of  homes,  will  be  turned  to  establishing  endow- 
ments for  improving  and  conserving  the  higher  home- 
making  and  educational  functions  of  the  fraternity. 
Already  this  movement  is  under  way.  Each  home 
built  and  paid  for  is  in  the  nature  of  an  endowment. 
The  spread  of  this  movement  has  been  wonderful 
and  inevitable.  There  are  about  370  colleges  and 
universities  which  contain  chapters  of  some  frater- 


ioo          The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

nities,  and  in  many  of  these  institutions  the  houses 
of  the  fraternities  are  among  the  finest  in  the  town. 
Millions  of  dollars  have  been  thus  invested.  For  ex- 
ample, the  properties  of  the  eleven  fraternities  at  Am- 
herst  are  worth  more  than  twenty  times  the  amount  of 
Yale's  available  funds  in  1830;  and  the  properties  of  ten 
fraternities  at  Columbia  equal  in  value  the  total  pro- 
ductive funds  of  all  the  colleges  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century.  Since  the  older  private  institutions  have 
thus  come,  more  and  more,  to  depend  upon  the  fra- 
ternities for  housing  space,  and  merely  get  along  with 
patching  up  their  ancient  barnlike  dormitories,  and 
the  state  universities  have  avowedly  pursued  the  course 
of  not  having  any  dormitories  at  all,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
see  why  the  fraternity  home  is  now  the  typical  college 
home,  and  in  many  cases  the  best  type  of  home  in  any 
particular  college. 

But  in  the  fraternities,  which  are  largely  responsible 
for  the  ninety  per  cent  of  the  student  life  of  their  mem- 
bers, there  is  the  same  lack  of  administrative  care  which 
we  shall  find  to  exist  in  the  colleges. )  Their  alumni 
must  be  made  to  understand  this,  and  to  appreciate  that, 
so  long  as  they  maintain  these  homes,  they  are  respon- 
sible for  each  and  every  one  of  them,  and  for  the  home 
life  of  each  and  every  undergraduate  member  therein. 
The  alumni,  working  from  within — and  not  the  college 
working  from  without — but  with  the  active  assistance 
of  the  college  authorities,  must  keep  these  homes  clean. 
These  centers  are  no  longer  the  field  in  which  the  college 
state  must  exercise  its  home-making  functions.  These 
have  passed  to  the  owners  and  proprietors  of  the  several 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home       101 

homes,  but  the  college  has  the  clear  right  to  demand  that 
the  owners  shall  keep  their  several  homes  so  that  they 
shall  be  a  positive  aid  to  the  college  work. 

One  old  and  influential  fraternity  is  annually  spend- 
ing thousands  of  dollars  to  secure  the  wise  direction 
and  constant  personal  touch  in  its  lodges  and  among 
its  alumni  of  a  permanent  and  uniquely  equipped  field 
secretary,  who  seeks  to  insure  that  only  the  best  fitted 
freshmen  are  admitted,  and  that  throughout  their  course 
these  students  shall  be  in  constant  and  close  touch  in 
their  college  home  lives  with  strong  and  earnest  alumni 
who  are  personally  and  intimately  acquainted  with  each 
undergraduate,  and  who,  through  a  long  series  of  years, 
come  to  exert  an  uplifting  educational  .and  moral  power 
from  within  the  lodge  which  must  greatly  increase  the 
likelihood  that  the  good  seed  will  fall  into  good  ground. 
This  is  no  longer  an  experiment.  After  four  years  of 
such  work  this  fraternity  can  measure  up  some  of  the 
direct  educational  results  from  its  endeavors  to  hold 
itself  strictly  accountable  for  the  intellectual  and  moral 
conditions  of  its  own  college  homes.  It  finds  its  num- 
bers greater  than  ever  before,  and  that  its  percentage  of 
loss  of  active  members  from  every  cause  is  less  than 
twenty  per  cent  of  the  average  loss  of  the  colleges  in 
which  it  has  chapters,  and  that  its  loss  from  poor 
scholarship  is  even  smaller.  It  finds  that  one  half  its 
chapters,  with  one  half  its  total  membership,  did  not 
lose  a  single  man  during  the  first  half  of  the  last  college 
year,  and  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  its  apparent 
losses  have  been  offset  by  the  men  who,  through  its  in- 
fluence, returned  to  college  and  finished  their  courses. 


IO2  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

Yet  the  undergraduate  members  of  this  fraternity  are 
probably  on  an  average  as  wealthy  and  as  active  socially 
as  those  of  any  other.  The  constant  touch  of  the  local 
alumni,  under  the  lead  of  an  organized  administration, 
has  shown  what  a  fraternity  is  capable  of  doing  in  the 
college  lives  of  its  undergraduates. 

As  this  book  proposes  fraternity  and  college  reorgani- 
zation upon  a  strictly  business  basis,  and  largely  through 
their  business  alumni,  it  is  not  improper  thus  to  refer  to 
the  success  which  has  already  followed  this  initial  ex- 
periment of  fraternity  reorganization  by  business  and 
professional  alumni  along  modern  administrative  lines. 
This  experiment  has  demonstrated  beyond  cavil  that, 
entirely  without  pedagogical  initiation  or  supervision, 
there  is  an  inherent  power  in  the  fraternity  alumni  to 
make  their  home  in  any  particular  college  community 
stand  for  the  best  that  such  a  home  should  stand  for  in 
any  community ;  that  often  the  chief  obstacles  to  enno- 
bling a  fraternity  home  are  the  debasing  influences  of  the 
atmosphere  of  the  college  community  life ;  and  that  not- 
withstanding the  steady  downpull  of  the  college  com- 
munity, but  not  without  a  great  cost  of  thought  and 
care,  the  college  home  can  be  so  kept  that  it  is  inspiring 
intellectually  and  morally.  Q.  E.  D.  A  successful  ex- 
periment under  normal  conditions  and  with  ordinary 
agencies  is  worth  a  hundred  theories,  and  this  is  what 
is  offered  to  the  alumni  of  other  fraternities  as  a  demon- 
stration of  what  they,  too,  can  accomplish. 

If  anyone  doubts  the  assertions  of  this  book  in  relation 
to  the  general  student  life  and  the  college  homes  and 
their  place  in  training  the  future  citizen  and  in  rounding 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home       103 

out  the  work  of  the  college  instructor,  let  him  assume 
the  position  of  field  secretary  in  a  good  fraternity,  and 
learn  what  a  load  he  must  carry  on  his  heart  and  mind 
when  he  attempts  to  raise  his  own  fraternity  homes 
against  the  steady  downdrag  of  the  student  life,  es- 
pecially where  he  has  to  deal  with  students  who  have 
plenty  of  money,  or  too  much  for  their  real  good.  Or 
let  the  thoughtful  alumnus  learn  from  such  an  un- 
doubted expert  in  student  life  the  true  conditions  which 
prevail  in  the  majority  of  the  homes  of  his  own  Alma 
Mater,  and  he  will  begin  to  realize  what  proportions  the 
home  life  department  assumes  in  the  mind  of  one  who 
thoroughly  investigates  these  conditions  in  order  to  pro- 
pose reorganization  along  strictly  business  lines.  When 
he  sees  the  influences  which  he  must  meet,  he  will  un- 
derstand that  the  college  is  not  equipped  to  do  this 
work  unaided,  and  must  avail  itself  of  every  possible 
help. 

To  such  an  investigator  home-making  will  mean  far 
more  than  home-building.  The  home-building  is  but  a 
matter  of  dollars,  and  bricks  and  mortar,  but  the  home- 
making  is  character-building — with  all  which  that  im- 
plies— in  and  upon  the  graduate  and  undergraduate 
factors  which  are  necessary  to  a  good  college  home. 

I  have  a  deep-rooted  conviction  that  what  one  fra- 
ternity can  do,  has  done,  and  is  doing,  other  fraternities 
can  do  if  they  will  but  consciously  pass  from  their  home- 
building  to  their  home-making  periods.  Earnest  talks 
with  earnest  alumni  of  other  fraternities  convince  me 
that  the  time  is  ripe  for  this  great  forward  movement 
among  the  alumni  of  our  colleges,  and  that  the  fullest 


IO4          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

and  most  cordial  cooperation  among  the  college  homes 
and  those  who  in  the  larger  sense  have  charge  of  them 
must  be  one  of  the  first  steps  forward  toward  a  business 
reorganization.  This  feeling  of  direct  responsibility  for 
the  college  family  lives  of  their  undergraduate  brothers 
is  increasingly  abroad  in  all  the  fraternities  and  will 
soon  work  out  great  results,  and  already  most  fraterni- 
ties have  partially  endowed  some  portions  of  their  work. 

The  sectarianism  of  the  churches  was  weakened  when 
Sabbath  schools  were  formed  and  the  lay  workers  in 
these  broke  over  church  lines  and  united  in  laboring  for 
the  young.  Panhellenism  will  come,  but  not  until  the 
alumni  workers  in  each  fraternity  fully  organize  as  home- 
makers,  and  thus  are  made  to  realize  that  cooperation 
and  not  isolation  will  solve  the  problems  which  are 
common  to  all,  for  they  are  merely  the  common  problems 
of  the  college  home. 

I  wish  to  bear  most  cordial  witness  to  the  very  strong 
feeling  which  I  find  among  the  leading  alumni  of  sister 
fraternities  as  to  their  duties  in  regard  to  their  under- 
graduates. This  has  not  yet  fully  crystallized,  but  it  is 
coming  fast  and  will  take  form  almost  before  we  know 
it.  I  believe  that  the  fraternities  will  do  their  splendid 
part  in  the  great  college  reorganization — which  must 
soon  come — far  more  quickly  and  thoroughly  than  the 
majority  of  the  colleges  will  do  theirs.  Our  fraternities 
are  still  absorbed  with  their  home-building,  but  will 
speedily  assume  and  wisely  exercise  the  home- making 
functions  which,  in  her  evolution  into  a  quasi  state, 
have  logically  and  necessarily  fallen  from  Alma  Mater's 
hands. 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home       105 

No  patent  is  claimed  for  the  conception  that  strong, 
clean  alumni,  acting  permanently  within  their  fraternity 
home,  work  powerfully  for  a  better  life  therein.  This 
has  always  been  so — and  would  be  in  any  home.  But 
there  is  plainly  in  sight  an  advance  movement  to  sys- 
tematically organize,  develop  and  endow  the  fraternity 
as  a  home- making  force,  and  such  a  movement,  with 
our  most  influential  alumni  behind  it,  will  be  sure 
of  success.  A  thoughtful  student  of  modern  under- 
graduate conditions  must  realize  that  our  fraternities 
furnish  the  only  broad  and  effective  means  so  far  de- 
veloped and  now  available  for  permanently  reaching 
the  college  home  lives  of  any  considerable  number  of 
students  in  any  considerable  number  of  institutions. 
No  other  home-building  or  home-making  force  is  now 
at  work  among  our  American  colleges  in  a  large  way 
and  along  well-defined  and  philosophically  correct  lines. 

Furthermore,  in  the  nonfraternity  colleges  there  is  no 
similar  agency  whereby  the  alumni  are  systematically 
put  in  touch  with  the  family  lives  of  the  undergraduates. 
I  have  discussed  with  the  college  authorities,  alumni 
and  undergraduates  of  the  leading  nonfraternity  col- 
leges the  relations  of  their  graduates  to  the  under- 
graduates in  the  college  home  plane,  and  have  found 
that,  almost  without  exception,  there  was  not  even  a 
conception  of  close  cooperation  between  the  alumni 
and  students  such  as  prevails  in  a  good  fraternity  chap- 
ter. In  the  leading  nonfraternity  university  it  was 
baldly  put  by  an  undergraduate  as  follows: 

"The  alumni  are  back  numbers,  and  if  they  do  not 
mind  their  own  business  we  will  make  them  do  so.  We 


io6          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

have  no  use  for  them,  except  to  help  us  out  in  athletics." 
Leading  alumni  have  assured  me  that  this  is  the  proper 
attitude,  and  instructors  who  had  come  from  fraternity 
colleges  have  repeatedly  told  me  that  they  had  been 
shocked  to  find  that  these  words  correctly  expressed  the 
sentiments  with  which  the  alumni  were  regarded  by  the 
undergraduates  in  that  university.  Up  to  the  present 
time  there  is  no  agency  in  the  nonfraternity  college 
through  which  the  influence  of  the  alumni  can  be  per- 
manently and  surely  exerted  in  the  college  home. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  the  fraternity  or  nonfraternity 
home,  as  we  superficially  think.  It  is  ever  and  always 
the  question  of  the  college  home  life  for  every  under- 
graduate, whether  a  fraternity  member  or  not.  Fur- 
thermore, it  is  the  question  of  whether  we  have  failed  to 
give  due  thought  to  one  of  the  great  departments  of  our 
colleges,  and  whether  this  is  not  another  unanswerable 
argument  for  a  college  reorganization  upon  business 
principles.  On  every  side  I  am  met  by  the  assurances 
of  the  best  workers  among  our  students  that  the  college 
authorities  and  faculty  cannot,  unaided,  solve  the  prob- 
lems which  arise  in  the  student  life  department.  This 
is  clearly  stated  in  the  following  letter  from  President 
Harry  Pratt  Judson,  of  Chicago  University: 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  in  any  college  the  general  social 
and  moral  conditions  are  almost  wholly  beyond  faculty  con- 
trol. Overt  acts  can  be  dealt  with  by  quasi  legal  processes. 
These,  however,  like  many  governmental  remedies,  do  not 
go  beyond  the  surface.  The  evils  which  exist  are  undoubted. 
They  can  be  reached  only  outside  the  faculty  and  by  agencies 
which  come  in  immediate  social  contact  with  student 
life.  ...  Of  course  a  university  like  ours  is  under  condi- 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home       107 

tions  quite  different  from  those  attending  an  institution  which 
is  primarily  a  college.  Most  of  our  students  are  graduates 
of  college,  and  are  engaged  in  advanced  research  and  pro- 
fessional work.  At  the  same  time,  while  this  modifies  the 
general  social  conditions,  the  essentials  are  left  untouched. 
Financial  organization  of  our  institutions  of  learning  may 
easily  be  made  businesslike;  faculty  organization,  so  far  as 
instruction  is  concerned,  may  easily  be  made  adequate;  those 
^agencies  which  deal  with  social,  moral  or  spiritual  life, 
however,  have  to  do  with  far  more  elusive  qualities,  and 
the  result  is  that  the  organization  thus  far  effected  in  those 
lines  is  entirely  inadequate.  This  is  to  my  mind  the  great 
problem  which  should  now  be  handled  by  college  adminis- 
trators." | 

President  Schurman,  of  Cornell,  in  a  recent  annual 
report,  says: 

"While  the  intellectual  and  scholarly  spirit  and  organ- 
ization are  on  a  high  plane,  the  social  life  leaves  much  to  be 
desired.  The  great  majority  of  the  young  men — all  except 
those  in  fraternities — are  scattered  in  boarding  and  lodging 
houses  throughout  the  city.  The  experience  of  American 
students  seems  to  show  that  the  fraternity  house,  accom- 
modating two  or  three  dozen  students,  presents  in  the  matter 
of  size  and  arrangement  an  ideal  for  the  residential  hall; 
it  is  large  enough  for  a  community  and  not  too  large  for 
intimate  acquaintance  and  friendship;  it  provides  studies, 
bed-rooms,  bathrooms,  kitchen,  dining-room  and  commons 
room." 

When  one  speaks  favorably  of  the  part  which  the 
fraternities  have  played  and  can  play  in  solving  a  por- 
tion of  the  college  home  life  problem,  he  is  continually 
met  with  the  suggestion,  "But  that  does  not  provide  for 
the  nonfraternity  men."  This  is  true  and  lamentable, 
but  it  is  an  arraignment  of  the  colleges  and  not  of  the 
fraternities,  and  merely  proves  that  substantially  all  the 
progress  so  far  made  toward  a  wide  solution  of  the 


io8  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

college  home  problem  has  been  made  by  the  fraternities 
and  not  by  the  colleges.  College  dormitories,  whether 
with  or  without  commons,  are  usually  barracks,  and  not 
homes  in  the  true  sense,  and  are  simply  a  barracks  form 
of  solving  the  college  home  life  problem.  It  must  be 
conceded,  therefore,  that  the  question  of  homes  for  the 
nonfraternity  men  is  merely  that  portion  of  the  institu- 
tion's own  problem — of  providing  and  governing  homes 
for  all  its  students — which  the  fraternities  have  not 
solved  for  it;  and  that  it  is  what  the  fraternities  have 
done  which  has  thrown  into  bold  relief  this  failure  of 
the  colleges  to  do  anything! 

The  question  "How  do  you  provide  for  the  nonfra- 
ternity members?"  leaves  the  position  of  the  colleges 
about  as  follows:  "We  have  felt  compelled  to  give  up 
building  dormitories.  We  have  quite  overlooked  the 
inherent  difference  between  a  college  home  and  a  room 
somewhere  in  a  college  town.  We  have  considered  our 
duty  done  if  our  students  could  find  some  shelter  under 
the  roofs  of  the  college  village  or  town,  which  expects, 
somehow  or  other,  to  get  its  chief  living  out  of  the 
college  students,  for  the  students'  trade  is  its  most 
important  asset.1  Suddenly  we  realize  that  the  fra- 
ternities have  acquired  a  monopoly  of  the  homes  and 
the  college  of  the  barracks;  and  that  it  is  the  social  and 
other  features  of  the  home  which  the  nonfraternity 
members  are  clamoring  for,  and  which  make  them  en- 
vious of  the  fraternity  members.  For  instead  of  de- 

1  In  one  state  university  town  this  has  been  found  to  aggregate  at 
least  $600,000  a  year,  which  is  five  per  cent  on  $12,000,000,  although 
the  total  endowment  of  the  university  in  question  was  less  than 

$3,000,000. 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home       109 

pending  upon  the  college,  some  of  the  undergraduates, 
with  the  financial  aid  of  the  alumni,  have  erected  beau- 
tiful homes,  and  thereby  have  made  even  more  apparent 
the  failure  of  the  institution  to  provide  for  any  true  form 
of  college  home  life.  Since  then  the  fraternities  have 
solved  this  problem  in  part,  and  thereby  have  made  the 
college  failure  more  evident,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  fra- 
ternities (on  the  ground  that  one  good  turn  deserves 
another!)  to  go  on  and  solve  the  remainder  of  this 
problem  of  the  college  or  to  show  the  institution  how  it 
can  itself  do  this."  In  other  words,  it  is  not  an  edifice 
but  the  associations  of  a  home  which  the  nonfraternity 
men  crave.  They  know  that  the  brotherhood  of  the 
fraternity  is  a  living  force  which  extends  to  every  phase 
of  life,  and  it  is  this  personal  and  vital  interest  in  the 
individual  which  each  man  hungers  for,  and  which  now- 
adays few  get  except  in  the  fraternity  homes. 

Too  often  the  fraternities  are  the  only  factors  by 
which  at  present  the  college  course  can  round  out  the 
social  and  home  sides  of  its  training  of  the  future  citi- 
zen. The  assistance  which  the  fraternities  have  rendered 
to  the  college  in  performing  this  portion  of  its  duty  to 
the  commonwealth  must  not  be  overlooked  or  sneered 
at.  In  this  regard  the  question  is  not  as  to  whether  the 
jraternities  have  done  their  part  well,  or  as  well  as  the 
colleges  used  to  do,  but  rather  whether  the  colleges  have 
done  anything  at  all.  If,  then,  the  college  home  con- 
ditions have  become  bad  it  has  not  been  primarily  the 
fault  of  the  fraternities,  but  rather  because  the  institu- 
tions have  done  substantially  nothing,  and  have  not 
even  given  the  subject  any  intelligent  study. 


no          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

The  president  of  a  splendid  institution,  with  excep- 
tional advantages  and  unexceptional  local  conditions 
and  atmosphere,  and  where  there  are  no  fraternities, 
writes  as  follows: 

"Aren't  you  misunderstanding  the  rooming  and  board- 
ing situation,  especially  in  coeducational  colleges?  Here, 
for  example,  almost  none  of  the  men  board  by  themselves. 
They  have  their  meals  with  the  young  women  at  the  college 
boarding  houses,  and  at  other  private  houses  through  the 
town,  where  the  conditions,  if  not  ideal,  are  certainly  noth- 
ing like  what  they  often  become  in  clubs  where  men  eat 
by  themselves.  And  I  think  you  very  much  underestimate, 
also,  the  very  reasonable  provision  that  is  made  for  the  men 
scattered  through  the  homes  of  a  community  like  ours.  I 
am  inclined  to  think  here  that  the  experience  of  the  chil- 
dren's aid  societies — that  almost  any  home  is  better  than 
the  best  institution — holds  in  no  small  measure  for  students 
also,  and  that  the  human  relations  in  which  the  three  or  four 
or  five  students  come  to  the  family  in  whose  house  they  are 
rooming  are  not  without  their  value  and  wholesome  influ- 
ence in  the  life  of  the  students.  I  have  myself  doubted 
very  much,  so  far  as  our  experience  here  has  gone,  whether 
we  should  not  lose  rather  than  gain  by  the  substitution  of 
men's  dormitories  for  the  rooming  in  private  houses;  and  I 
have  never  felt  like  urging  the  putting  of  much  college 
money  in  this  direction." 

Probably  not  five  per  cent  of  our  students  are  under 
local  conditions  or  under  strong  religious  influences  re- 
sembling those  which  prevail  in  this  particular  insti- 
tution. In  other  places  the  scattering  of  the  students 
through  an  urban  population  of  low  morals  has  had 
such  disastrous  effects  that  the  authorities  have  been 
forced  to  attempt  to  get  all  undergraduates  on  to  the 
campus  or  into  fraternity  houses.  But  it  is  important 
to  note,  that,  even  in  this  instance  of  a  nonfraternity 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home       in 

college,  it  is  the  "human  relations"  which  are  felt  to  be 
the  great  thing.  It  is  "the  human  relations"  which 
the  fraternity  members  get  and  which  the  nonfraternity 
undergraduates  hunger  for,  and  which  are  chiefly  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  ask:  "But  how  do  you  provide  for 
the  nonfraternity  men?" 

It  is  not  easy  to  discuss  nonfraternity  conditions 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  fraternities,  for  at  least  the 
latter  have  accomplished  something,  both  in  the  way 
of  home-building  and  home-making.  They  have  made 
many  and  sad  failures  and  mistakes,  but  at  least  they 
have  made  a  record.  For  the  nonfraternity  men  very 
little  has  been  done,  even  by  the  colleges;  and  the  col- 
leges have  no  record  or  account  to  which,  like  that 
of  the  fraternities,  we  may  append  "E.  and  O.  E.," 
"errors  and  omissions  excepted."  The  history  of  the 
college  failure  in  recent  years  in  regard  to  the  college 
home  is  so  largely  made  up  of  errors  and  omissions  that 
if  these  should  be  excepted  there  would  be  little  left. 
But  surely  this  failure  of  the  colleges  gives  them  no 
right  to  find  fault  with  what  the  fraternities  have  ac- 
complished of  their  own  accord,  and  often  against  the 
opposition  of  the  college  itself. 

A  friend,  who  was  a  nonfraternity  man  not  from 
necessity  but  out  of  respect  for  his  father's  prejudices, 
but  who  thoroughly  believes  in  the  fraternities,  asks  me 
to  suggest  "some  home  life  for  the  nonfraternity  men, 
and  some  remedy  for  their  helpless  and  hopeless  con- 
dition, sans  parents,  faculty  care,  or  any  saving  grace  of 
upper  class  or  alumni  supervision."  Probably  there  are 
many  to  whom  this  language  seems  too  strong,  but  it 


U2  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

expresses  the  thoughts  which  I  have  heard  voiced  many 
times  in  colleges  where  the  fraternities  are  strong. 

My  suggestions  for  supplying  these  "  human  rela- 
tions" for  the  nonfraternity  men  will  be  found  in 
Chapter  XXXII. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  we  may  see  why  the  fraternities 
are  charged  with  being  exclusive  and  undemocratic. 
Certainly  they  do,  so  far  as  they  can,  attempt  to  train 
their  members  in  social  etiquette  and  polished  manners, 
and  thus  make  them  men  of  the  world,  and  round  out 
the  home  and  social  sides  of  their  characters;  but  the 
college  no  longer  does  anything  of  this  kind  directly. 
The  advantages  thus  evidently  given  by  the  fraternities 
are  unjustly  laid  up  against  them,  instead  of  being 
charged  to  their  credit  and  against  the  colleges  them- 
selves, which  should  at  least  attempt,  in  an  intelligent 
manner,  to  provide  for  the  nonfraternity  men  some  of 
the  same  kind  of  training  which  is  given  in  the  homes 
of  the  fraternities.  This  was  made  very  clear  to  me  in 
an  earnest  conversation  with  a  well-known  professor 
who  had  put  himself  through  a  nonfraternity  college, 
but  whose  younger  brothers  had  gone  through  another 
college  in  which  they  became  prominent  members  of 
fraternities.  I  found  that  his  complaint  was  based 
upon  the  fact  that  the  fraternities  gave  social  training 
in  polite  accomplishments  to  those  who  needed  them 
least,  having  previously  had  them  at  home;  but  that 
they  did  not,  nor  did  the  college,  give  this  training  to  the 
nonfraternity  men  who  were  usually  most  in  need  of  it. 
But  a  little  discussion  made  the  professor  admit  that 
this  was  in  fact  a  potent  argument  in  favor  of  the  fra- 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home       113 

ternity  and  against  the  college.  The  former,  by  in- 
telligently and  effectively  exercising  its  home- making 
functions,  was  not  preventing  the  latter  from  doing  the 
same  thing  in  some  manner;  but,  on  the  contrary,  was 
showing  it,  very  strikingly,  how  it  could  be  done  and 
thus  that  it  needed  to  be  done.  On  the  other  hand 
too  many,  like  the  professor  just  mentioned,  are  finding 
fault  with  the  only  agency  in  the  college  which  is  in- 
telligently exercising  these  earlier  home-making  func- 
tions of  Alma  Mater,  instead  of  arousing  that  dear  old 
woman  to  provide  stepmothers  if  she  can  no  longer 
attend  in  person  to  her  students'  good  manners.  This 
mistaken  point  of  view  lies  at  the  bottom  of  many  of  the 
complaints  against  the  fraternities.  They  are  unjustly 
accused  of  being  undemocratic,  aristocratic  and  exclu- 
sive, merely  because,  in  the  privacy  of  well-kept  homes, 
they  do  well  their  own  home- making  work,  and  thus 
make  clear  Alma  Mater's  failure  either  to  round  out 
this  side  of  the  characters  of  the  nonfraternity  men  or 
to  provide  a  substitute  to  carry  on  this  work,  although 
the  nonfraternity  men  undoubtedly  need  it  more  than 
the  average  fraternity  member.  The  complaint  is  an 
eminently  just  one,  but  against  the  wrong  party.  Judg- 
ment should  be  ordered  for  the  respondents  and  against 
the  complainants,  with  heavy  costs. 

It  is  clearly  evident,  therefore,  that  the  enormous 
growth  of  the  fraternity  homes  has  not  been  fortuitous. 
The  fraternities,  in  their  present  shape,  have  grown 
out  of  the  need  for  a  new  form  of  college  family  life; 
they  have  in  part  supplied  such  need,  and  thereby  have 
directed  attention  to  it;  but  they  have  not  created  the 


H4          The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

need,  and,  like  other  homes,  they  are  largely  limited,  in 
supplying  that  need,  to  the  good  they  can  do  within 
their  own  doors  and  to  the  example  which  they  can  set 
to  those  without.  In  our  review  of  the  history  of  college 
administrative  conditions  we  shall  find  many  proofs  of 
low  college  ideals,  practice  and  methods.  But  it  is  sur- 
prising that  the  clergymen  and  other  clean  men  of  our 
college  faculties  should  not  have  studied  and  under- 
stood this  attempt  of  the  undergraduates  to  find  sub- 
stitutes for  the  earlier  dormitory  homes,  and  should  not 
have  deemed  it  a  sacred  duty  to  join  intelligently  with 
the  home-building  forces  of  the  fraternities  to  insure 
that  these  homes,  which  are  the  great  foundation  of  the 
student  life,  should  be  kept  pure  and  ennobling.  Yet 
such  is  plainly  the  case.  Here  again,  with  no  proper 
administrative  department  to  study  their  problems,  our 
institutions  have  been  looking  backward,  and  have  not 
understood  how  the  college  secret  society  was  develop- 
ing into  the  college  home;  nor  have  they  perceived  that 
the  fraternities  could  solve  only  a  small  portion  of  this 
home  problem,  and  that  the  college  itself  must  do  the 
rest.  Some  of  the  terrible  results,  during  the  past  thirty 
years,  of  this  fatal  and  unexplainable  blindness  will  be- 
come clear  as  we  study  the  vices  engendered  and  fostered 
in  the  college  home. 

'  The  college  family  life,  like  that  of  any  other  home, 
is  concealed  from  the  public  view  and  fully  known  only 
to  members  of  the  family.  Otherwise  it  is  not  a  true 
family  life.  To  be  ideal  and  to  give  it  permanence,  the 
college  home  should  embrace  the  upper  and  lower  class- 
men, the  graduate  and  undergraduate — for  all  these 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home       115 

can  be  educated  and  developed  therein.  Our  children 
educate  us  almost  as  much  as  we  educate  them.  The 
older  brother  is  trained  and  developed  through  the 
responsibility  of  setting  an  example  to  and  protecting 
the  younger  children  who  look  up  to  him  as  the  "big 
brother."  An  only  child  is  likely  to  be  spoiled  because 
he  lives  only  to  himself.  Hence  there  are  true  educa- 
tive conditions  in  the  fraternity  home  where  members 
of  all  classes  are  intimately  gathered  together. 

President  Wilson,  in  his  memorandum  in  June,  1907, 
favoring  the  proposed  residential  Quads  at  Princeton, 
our  chief  nonfraternity  college,  voices  this  thought  in 
the  following  significant  words: 

"It  is  clear  to  everyone  that  the  life  of  the  university  can 
be  best  regulated  and  developed  only  when  the  under  class- 
men are  in  constant  association  with  upper  classmen,  upon 
such  terms  as  to  be  formed  and  guided  by  them." 

He  states  one  of  the  objects  of  the  Quads  to  be 

"to  give  to  the  university  the  kind  of  common  conscious- 
ness which  apparently  comes  from  closer  sorts  of  social  con- 
tact, to  be  had  only  outside  the  class  room,  and  most  easily 
to  be  got  about  a  common  table  and  in  the  contacts  of  a 
common  life." 

But  it  is  a  grave  question  whether  to-day  this  home 
consciousness  can  be  developed  in  groups  of  one  hundred 
or  more  students  arbitrarily  gathered  together.  A  col- 
lege home  to  be  successful  and  permanent  must  be  small 
and  congenial,  because  it  selects  and  trains  its  own  mem- 
bers, and  has  some  of  the  separateness  and  exclusive- 
ness  of  a  homef 

In  too  many  institutions  the  moral  tendency  of  the 


n6  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

student  life  as  a  whole  is  distinctly  downward,  and  any 
fraternity  chapter  therein  will  encounter  great  difficul- 
ties which  attempts  consistently  to  raise  its  own  moral 
or  religious  life  contrary  to  the  drift  of  the  college  itself, 
which  is  merely  the  resultant  of  the  home  life  of  genera- 
tions of  students.  The  college  homes  are  so  true  an 
index  of  the  general  student  life  that  if  we  can  know  the 
inner  family  life  of  the  fraternity  homes  in  a  college,  we 
can  infallibly  construct  therefrom  the  dominant  moral 
influences  that  rule  the  ninety  per  cent  of  student  life 
in  that  institution,  and  thereby  determine  the  true  edu- 
cational results  of  its  other  departments. 

The  shortcomings  of  many  of  the  Greek-letter  and 
other  college  homes  are  terrible,  as  I  shall  show  in  the 
next  chapter.  But  these  faults  and  failures  are  partly 
inherent  in  any  college  education,  and  in  any  home 
with  many  members,  and  always  have  been;  but  those 
of  the  fraternities  are  principally  chargeable  to  the  col- 
lege authorities  and  alumni,  who  have  regarded  chiefly 
the  financial  and  pedagogical  departments  and  have 
neglected  and  misunderstood  the  college  administration 
and  home  life  departments. 

We  must  learn  to  appreciate  that,  in  the  training  of 
the  future  citizen,  the  ninety  per  cent  of  the  student  life, 
with  all  its  activities  and  interests,  may  be  greater,  edu- 
cationally as  well  as  mathematically,  than  the  ten  per 
cent  of  pedagogy,  and  quite  as  well  worthy  of  earnest 
and  intelligent  thought  and  action;  and  that  the  heart 
of  that  ninety  per  cent  for  any  individual  is  his  college 
home  life,  whatever  form  that  life  may  take.  Let  us, 
then,  turn  frankly  but  sorrowfully  to  the  real  conditions 


The  Fraternities  and  the  College  Home       117 

of  some  of  the  college  homes  at  present  and  in  the  im- 
mediate past. 

It  is  unfortunate,  at  this  time  when  we  need  to  think 
clearly  on  the  true  meaning  of  the  college  home,  that  the 
question  should  be  complicated  by  the  high-school  fra- 
ternities, which  are  merely  one  of  the  pseudo  growths 
that  accompany  all  important  social  or  religious  move- 
ments. The  home  features  of  the  college  fraternity, 
which  have  been  its  reason  for  being  and  growing,  are 
entirely  lacking  in  the  high-school  society,  where  the 
members  still  live  in  their  parents'  homes.  But  the 
fraternities  have  themselves  principally  to  thank  if  their 
sillier  and  more  foolish  features,  the  remains  of  their 
own  secret-society  stage,  have  been  reproduced  by  their 
high-school  admirers  and  imitators. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   COLLEGE   HOME   AND   COLLEGE   VICES 

IT  is  with  extreme  reluctance  that  I  pen  this  chapter. 
Specific  references  to  the  matters  here  treated  were  pur- 
posely omitted  in  my  "  Individual  Training  in  Our  Col- 
leges." To  continue  that  policy  at  this  time  would,  to 
my  mind,  be  criminal;  because  it  would  fail  to  point 
out  the  terrible  toll  of  lives  that  has  marked  our  failure 
to  realize  long  ago  the  true  conditions  surrounding  our 
students  in  their  college  community  and  home  lives, 
and  to  thoroughly  reorganize  our  institutions  of  higher 
learning  so  that  their  direct  aim  shall  be  to  give  a  train- 
ing for  citizenship  and  scholarliness  along  something 
like  the  lines  herein  suggested,  and  upon  all  the  planes  of 
the  future  citizenship  of  their  students  as  individuals. 

My  previous  omission  was  not  because  of  a  lack  of 
conviction  as  to  the  facts,  but  because  of  a  repugnance 
to  all  public  mention  of  such  things,  enforced  by  the 
reluctance  of  a  lawyer  to  assert  any  fact  where  he  did 
not  have,  or  feel  authorized  to  produce,  the  legal  proof 
of  his  statements.  For  the  things  here  spoken  of  are 
not  legal  crimes  in  most  of  our  states,  and  therefore  are 
not  to  be  found  in  our  court  records;  that  is,  they  lie, 
not  within  the  prohibition  of  the  written  law,  but  in  the 
realm  of  the  relations  of  the  citizen  to  the  citizen  and  of 
the  citizen  to  his  home.  They  are  moral,  not  legal,  de- 

118 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         119 

linquencies,  and  hence  in  most  cases  we  can  expect  to 
find  only  moral,  not  legal,  evidence  as  to  their  existence. 
All  mention  of  them  is — or  used  to  be — tabooed  in 
polite  society,  and  even  now  they  will  very  largely  be 
denied  by  those  who  ought  to  be  the  last  to  deny  them; 
for  they  have  shut  their  eyes  to  them,  and  have  not 
studied  them,  although  they  have  taken  place  under 
their  very  eyes. 

In  studying  college  vices — since  they  are  moral  de- 
linquencies rather  than  legal  crimes  or  misdemeanors— 
we  must  realize  that,  as  in  all  similar  cases,  the  evidence 
is  not  often  direct,  but  is  hearsay,  and  on  suspicion,  and 
largely  prejudiced,  and  that  we  are  likely  to  get  bald 
assertions,  and  iterations  and  reiterations,  rather  than 
anything  in  the  form  of  even  moral  evidence.  Those 
who  know  the  facts  by  experience  exaggerate  the  evils, 
and  those  who  do  not  indulge  in  the  evils  belittle  the 
facts.  Above  all,  the  investigator  must  not  be  an  alarm- 
ist, or  a  prude  or  an  informer.  The  most  that  he  can  do 
is  quietly  and  confidentially  to  get  as  much  and  as  good 
evidence  as  possible,  and,  so  far  as  it  can  properly 
be  done,  submit  this  to  disinterested  persons  who  are 
likely  to  be  in  a  position  to  corroborate  or  disprove  his 
conclusions.  In  dealing  with  the  college  conditions  de- 
scribed in  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  I 
pursued  this  method,  but  when  I  had  gathered  my 
proofs  together  I  was  appalled  at  what  I  had  found 
in  many  institutions,  and  at  the  conclusions  which  must 
logically  be  drawn  therefrom.  I  felt  that  I  must  be 
an  alarmist,  and  that  my  conclusions  must  be  essen- 
tially false,  since  they  differed  so  widely  from  the  com- 


I2O  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

mon  view  of  the  colleges  and  their  authorities;  and 
I  was  unwilling  to  publish  those  conclusions  without 
further  confirmation.  Therefore  I  had  printed  thirty 
impressions  of  the  first  rough  draft  of  the  book,  and 
submitted  copies  to  the  former  and  present  Commis- 
sioners of  Education  of  the  United  States,  to  college 
presidents  and  other  well-known  educators,  and  to 
college  men,  young  and  old,  whose  opinions  were  en- 
titled to  confidence.  It  was  only  after  I  had  gathered 
back  these  thirty  volumes,  with  the  comments  noted 
on  their  margins,  and  had  thoroughly  digested  them, 
and  further  verified  some  points,  that  I  felt  warranted 
in  publishing  the  book.  The  universal  approval  with 
which  its  statements  and  conclusions  have  been  re- 
ceived, and  the  many  confirmatory  letters  received, 
even  from  those  who  were  utter  strangers,  have  made 
me  feel  sure  of  my  position,  and  have  convinced  me  that 
I  owe  a  duty  to  higher  education,  and  to  the  parents  and 
youth  of  our  country,  and  to  the  commonwealth,  to 
speak  plainly  of  certain  conditions  of  the  college  homes 
and  student  life  as  I  believe  them  to  be  in  too  many 
instances. 

I  willingly  take  full  responsibility  for  what  is  here 
said,  and  ask  no  one  to  share  this  with  me,  for  I  have 
carefully  weighed  it  and  assumed  it  with  my  eyes  open. 
I  appreciate  that  what  I  say  cannot  be  effectively  dis- 
proved, in  part  because  no  names  or  places  are  given. 
I  have  had  the  opportunity  to  learn  the  facts  as  to 
student  life  and  college  homes  from  Maine  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  from  Minnesota,  Wisconsin  and  Dakota  to 
the  farthest  South.  I  have  talked  and  corresponded 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         121 

with  hundreds  of  college  professors  and  officials,  stu- 
dents, deans,  medical  men  and  recent  graduates,  and 
have  carefully  examined,  weighed  and  sifted  the  evi- 
dence, and  shall  use  but  a  very  small  portion  of  what  I 
have  gathered.  I  am  not  attempting  to  be  sensational, 
but  rather  to  point  out  an  unstudied  evil  which  is  at 
the  very  bottom  of  our  college  waste  heaps,  and  which 
must  be  understood  by  parents,  alumni  and  preparatory 
school  teachers  if  we  are  to  rouse  the  college  authorities 
from  what  is  too  often  their  fatal  torpor  in  regard  to 
these  things,  and  if  we  are  to  reorganize  the  colleges 
upon  anything  like  business  principles,  and  if  the 
colleges  are  to  perform  their  duties  as  public  servants. 

These  conditions  differ  in  different  institutions  and 
in  different  communities  and  at  different  times,  but  have 
never  been  properly  or  adequately  studied  through  the 
right  agencies  in  any  college. 

Here  again  we  must  not  overlook  the  radical  differ- 
ences of  conditions  prevailing  in  our  various  institu- 
tions. Some  are  practically  free  from  the  evils  herein- 
after referred  to;  others  reek  with  them;  and  there  are 
all  grades  between  these  extremes.  Whether  or  not 
these  evils  prevail  in  a  given  institution,  and  to  what 
extent,  is  indeed  an  important  question.  But  even 
more  important  is  the  question  whether  they  are  being 
thoroughly  and  wisely  studied  and  treated  therein. 
Otherwise  they  may  be  suddenly  and  secretly  intro- 
duced and  become  widespread  because  no  proper  guard 
was  set  against  them.  Parents  should  investigate  the 
prevailing  student,  life  conditions  quite  as  much  as  the 
pedagogical  claims  of  the  institutions  to  which  they  are 


122  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

proposing  to  send  their  sons.  They  have  a  right  to  de- 
mand that  as  definite  information  shall  be  made  avail- 
able upon  this  subject  as  upon  others  as  to  which  the 
catalogues  are  very  explicit. 

College  sentiment  or,  if  you  please,  the  college  at- 
mosphere is  like  any  other  pervading  sentiment  and 
atmosphere,  intangible  but  vital  and  cogent.  It  is  the 
residuum  of  the  lives  and  ideals  of  many  college  gen- 
erations which  have  solidified  into  influences  which 
dominate  the  life  of  the  college  community  and  of  its 
several  homes.  It  is  not  transient,  but  a  tradition  with 
a  tremendous  power  to  influence  the  future  students  who 
shall  feel  it  and  live  in  it,  but  who  are  not  in  the  least 
responsible  for  it.  An  impressionable  boy  must  take 
his  college  home,  in  its  broader  or  narrower  sense,  as  he 
finds  it,  and  when  he  leaves  it,  it  will  probably  remain 
in  about  the  same  condition  as  that  in  which  he  found 
it.  President  Eliot  says: 

("The  phrase  college  spirit  undoubtedly  describes  a  real 
thing.  .  .  .  Slight  differences  in  tone  or  atmosphere  may 
produce  striking  effects  on  the  prevailing  quality  of  the  grad- 
uates of  different  colleges,  and  these  effects  are  often  trace- 
able to  differences  in  social  organization — the  complex  result 
of  traditions,  manners  and  customs,  and  transmitted  opinions 
and  sentiments."]1 

Let  us  not  blame  the  young  man  who  is  harmfully 
affected  by  the  noxious  and  insidious  influences  of  his 
college  home,  but  rather  his  elders,  the  college  author- 
ities and  alumni,  who  have  not  studied,  understood  or 
wisely  combated  those  influences,  and  the  parents  who 

1  "  University  Administration,"  p.  225. 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         123 

take  the  greatest  care  about  his  early  home,  but  sub- 
stantially none  about  his  college  home.  The  miasmatic 
atmosphere  for  which  the  young  man  was  in  no  sense 
responsible,  but  which  has  been  passed  down  to  him 
from  earlier  college  generations,  has  but  worked  out  its 
natural  and  almost  inevitable  result  upon  him.  As 
already  shown,  the  college  state  can  have  very  little 
direct  influence  by  law  or  ordinance  upon  the  homes  of 
its  citizens,  especially  where  they  own  and  control  their 
homes.  Its  really  beneficent  influence  must  be  indirect; 
by  man  upon  man;  by  the  individual  representing  the 
college  acting  upon  the  various  dominant  factors  in  the 
college  homes,  whether  those  factors  be  graduates  or 
undergraduates.  But  this  indirect  influence  of  the 
college  has  the  advantage  of  being  a  permanent  one, 
which  does  not  change  from  year  to  year,  and  which, 
for  this  reason,  can  bring  to  bear  upon  its  present  prob- 
lems the  influence  of  alumni  who  have  felt  in  the  past 
its  potency  for  good  upon  their  own  lives.  The  power 
of  the  alumni  over  undergraduate  affairs,  so  strikingly 
shown  in  football  and  other  athletic  management,  and 
in  many  instances  in  good  fraternity  chapters,  is  one  of 
the  great  inherent  agencies  for  good  in  the  college 
economy  which  is  now  substantially  unused  and  running 
to  waste;  and  thereby  having  a  direct  tendency  to  pile 
high  the  college  waste  heap. 

In  many  of  our  larger  colleges  and  universities,  and 
in  too  many  of  our  smaller  ones,  a  very  considerable 
part  of  the  college  home  life  is  morally  rotten — terribly 
so.  Some  of  the  smaller  and  older  colleges,  with  grand 
records  in  the  past,  have  as  low  a  standard  in  student 


124          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

morals  as  the  larger  universities.  Some  of  the  worst 
conditions  prevail  in  minor  denominational  institutions 
which  are  presumed  to  be  ultrareligious  and  to  be  the 
chief  places  for  furnishing  clergymen  for  such  denomi- 
nations. Lest  these  statements  be  too  sweeping,  let  me 
again  caution  the  reader  that  each  institution  must  be 
judged  by  itself,  and  stand  or  fall  alone,  and  at  the 
particular  period  under  review. 

In  some  institutions  from  twenty  per  cent  to  forty 
per  cent  of  the  graduate  and  undergraduate  students 
consort  with  lewd  women,  and  at  least  as  large  a  ratio 
drink  to  excess  at  times.  The  proportions  are  much 
higher  in  the  upper  classes  than  in  the  lower,  showing 
that  these  vices  are  largely  the  direct  result  of  influences 
which  prevail  in  the  college  community  life  and  the 
college  home.  In  some  instances  at  least  twenty  per 
cent  of  the  students  have  been  venereally  diseased  be- 
fore their  course  is  finished.  All  these  things,  with 
quite  too  much  gambling,  are  evils  of  the  college  home 
life,  and  must  be  fought  therein,  not  by  college  or- 
dinances but  by  new  home  influences.  Confirmation 
of  these  assertions  must  be  sought  among  those  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  student  life  and  the  col- 
lege homes.  These  appalling  figures  are  based  on  the 
carefully  sifted  estimates  of  the  students  themselves  in 
many  widely  separated  institutions,  checked  off  by  men 
whose  professional  or  other  college  connections  have 
brought  them  into  close  personal  touch  with  the  college 
home  life.  The  testimony  of  a  member  of  the  faculty 
as  such  may  be,  and  sometimes  has  been  found  to  be, 
practically  worthless  in  regard  to  these  matters,  for  they 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         125 

are  entirely  outside  of  his  pedagogy  and  therefore  out- 
side of  his  department.  They  are  usually  studiously 
concealed  from  the  faculty  by  common  consent  of  the 
student  body,  because  the  attitude  of  the  faculty  is 
often  that  of  detecting  and  punishing  individuals,  and 
not  that  of  broad-minded  statesmen,  studying  and  im- 
proving the  underlying  conditions  of  the  community 
and  the  private  lives  of  its  citizens.  This  attitude  of 
the  faculty  sometimes  arrays  against  them  even  the  best 
among  the  undergraduates,  who  certainly  are  not 
sneaks  or  detectives  spying  upon  the  private  lives  of 
their  fellow-students.  But,  on  the  contrary,  all  that  te 
best  in  the  student  body  can  and  should  be  brought  to 
the  aid  of  the  college  in  rooting  out  the  causes  of  such 
evils  and  in  building  up  an  enlightened  public  senti- 
ment which  shall  frown  upon  their  continuance.  Here 
is  another  instance  where  the  college  might  profit  by 
the  example  of  the  business  concern,  and,  through  its 
administrative  department,  "make  all  things  work  to- 
gether for  good"  in  preparing  the  soil  into  which  the 
seed  is  to  fall. 

In  considering  as  briefly  as  may  be  the  evil  conditions 
of  the  college  home,  let  us  determine,  first,  whether, 
logically,  we  should  not  expect  just  such  evils  because 
of  the  local  and  other  conditions  in  many  institutions; 
secondly,  whether  these  evils  have  not  often  been  made 
worse  and  more  chronic  by  the.  course  taken  by  the 
college  authorities  and  alumni;  and,  thirdly,  let  us  look 
at  some  instances  which  support  the  charges  made. 

First.  Just  such  conditions  are  to  be  expected  in 
very  many  institutions. 


126  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

The  standard  of  personal  morality  in  many  of  our 
cities  and  communities  is  very  low,  especially  in  mining 
and  factory  centers  where  there  is  a  large  foreign  or 
floating  population  and  many  unmarried  women  earn- 
ing merely  starvation  wages.  In  such  communities 
the  old  standards  of  personal  morality  are  largely  un- 
known. Drunkenness  and  the  social  evil  are  rife,  and 
there  is  no  well-defined  and  long-standing  moral  senti- 
ment of  the  community  to  frown  upon  personal  im- 
morality. On  the  contrary,  the  public  sentiment  of  a 
large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  as  to  the  social  evil, 
drunkenness  and  gambling  is  thoroughly  debased,  and 
is  constantly  being  lowered  by  many  vicious  influences. 
The  percentage  of  low  grog  shops,  of  crime  and  of  im- 
morality is  exceedingly  large.  Many  of  our  colleges 
and  universities  are  located  in  or  near  hotbeds  of  this 
character,  and  many  students  in  other  institutions  come 
from  such  localities,  or  are  descended  from  fathers 
whose  early  lives  have  not  been  impeccable  in  this  re- 
gard and  who  do  not  claim  to  their  sons  that  they  have 
been.  Such  influences  as  these  are  never  on  the  de- 
fensive, but  carry  on  an  active  and  insidious  offensive 
campaign  of  solicitation  and  temptation.  Moreover, 
the  local  conditions  of  college  towns  often  change,  sud- 
denly or  slowly,  from  those  which  were  ideal  to  those 
which  are  frightful,  or  a  near-by  factory  city  offers  all 
sorts  of  solicitations  with  few  chances  of  detection.  Ex- 
cept in  large  cities  these  evils  are  much  more  likely  to 
be  perpetrated  in  a  neighboring  factory  center  than  in 
the  college  town. 

One  dean,  who  has  been  unusually  successful  in  pro- 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         127 

gressive  and  effective  religious  work  among  college  un- 
dergraduates, writes  of  this: 

"There  ought  to  be  a  law,  federal  if  possible,  prohibiting 
the  presence  of  such  things  at  a  college  center.  Communi- 
ties regard  colleges  as  sources  of  revenue  and  should  be  re- 
quired to  choose  the  college  or  the  dives  and  saloons.  Look 

at  the  colleges  located  in towns  next  to  the 

River,  across  which,  on  the side,  such  things  line  the 

banks.  State  laws  are  inadequate  and  local  option  is  too 
uncertain.  All  these  vices  huddle  in  college  towns,  seeking 
like  buzzards  the  easiest  prey.  Something  of  this  kind  is 
possible,  it  seems  to  me,  where  the  government  makes  ap- 
propriations, as  in  the  case  of  state  colleges  and  universities." 

These  are  not  fanciful  pictures,  but  facts  bearing 
directly  upon  the  question  of  college  reorganization. 
For  our  purposes  they  are  not  matters  for  the  social 
settlement  in  the  slums  of  a  great  city,  but  everyday 
influences  acting  upon  the  college  home  lives  of  a  very 
large  proportion  of  our  undergraduates,  and  affecting 
their  training  for  citizenship.  They  are  the  things  which 
make  the  ninety  per  cent  of  the  student  life  the  most 
important  department  of  the  college  because  it  is  to 
determine  the  results  in  college  and  in  after  life  of  the 
work  of  the  other  departments.  They  also  bear  upon 
the  great  duty  which  the  college  owes  to  the  common- 
wealth and  to  all  connected  with  its  own  self. 

But  another  terrible  aspect  of  the  social  evil  in  college 
is  that  the  women  are  frequently  of  a  low  class,  who  also 
consort  freely  with  mill  hands,  miners  and  rounders  of 
the  worst  type,  and  are  almost  of  necessity  diseased  and 
almost  as  certain  to  communicate  these  diseases.  From 
the  very  nature  of  the  case  our  college  students  are  not 
financially  able  to  indulge  in  expensive  luxuries  of  this 


128          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

kind,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  their  indulgences  are  fre- 
quently with  such  a  low  grade  of  women  that  disease  is 
almost  sure  to  follow.  And  this  is  what  is  happening 
and  for  years  has  been  happening  daily  throughout  our 
institutions  of  higher  learning;  and  not  only  in  them 
but  among  the  boys  in  our  large  preparatory  schools  and 
high  schools,  especially  during  vacations.  The  preva- 
lence of  these  evil  conditions  constantly  tends  to  fur- 
ther lower  college  sentiment  and  make  it  easier  for  any 
student  to  drift  with  the  crowd;  and  strange  as  it  may 
appear,  those  who  have  become  diseased  often  seem 
most  anxious  to  justify  their  condition  by  inducing  others 
to  join  in  their  vices. 

'  Moreover,  at  this  very  period  of  life,  when  nature 
intended  that  the  sexes  should  meet  in  pure  and  natural 
association,  our  young  college  men  are  largely  deprived 
of  opportunities  to  meet  young  women  of  their  own 
station  in  life,  and  thus  are  the  more  easily  tempted  by 
the  vile.  There  are  many  lowering  and  evil  tendencies 
and  factors  in  our  grouping  together  thousands  of  young 
unmarried  men  in  colleges  and  universities,  which  must 
in  a  geometrical  ratio  produce  a  decline  in  the  personal 
morals  of  the  individuals  and  of  the  college  home  life, 
unless  actively  and  wisely  combated  in  the  college  homes 
themselves.  This  tendency,  unless  studied  and  checked, 
must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  grow  steadily  worse — 
and  this  has  been  the  case  too  frequently  during  the  past 
twenty-five  years. 

Secondly,  these  conditions  have  been  made  worse  by 
the  very  course  of  the  college  authorities  and  alumni. 

We  would  expect  the  psychologists  and  philosophers 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         129 

of  the  faculties  and  among  the  alumni  to  anticipate  such 
a  condition  of  affairs,  and  to  forewarn  all  factors  inter- 
ested in  the  problem,  and  to  unite  them  to  combat  an 
evil  which  cannot  stand  still,  which  must  be  dissected 
and  studied  in  all  its  ramifications,  and  then  constantly, 
wisely  and  consistently  combated,  unless  it  is  to  assume 
greater  and  greater  proportions  under  such  favorable 
surroundings.  But  comparatively  little  of  this  has  been 
done.  We  have  not  realized  that  these  great  evils  are 
not  the  products  of  the  college  financial,  pedagogical 
or  administrative  departments,  but  distinctly  and  almost 
solely  of  the  student  life,  and  hence  to  be  studied  and 
combated  therein.  In  some  colleges  there  are  lectures 
upon  these  subjects,  but  instead  of  being  treated  as  the 
performance  of  a  high  duty  toward  the  commonwealth 
and  its  homes,  the  lectures  are  often  so  low  and  broad 
in  character  as  to  do  more  harm  than  good,  serving  as 
student  jokes  throughout  the  course./  In  one  institu- 
tion for  many  years  the  medical  students  were  openly 
advised  by  a  prominent  professor  to  have  illicit  inter- 
course so  that  they  might  better  understand  some  of 
their  studies;  with  the  local  results  which  might  have 
been  expected.  /  On  the  other  hand,  not  only  have  our 
college  authorities  failed  to  properly  study  or  combat 
these  evils,  but  they  have  too  often  emphatically  and 
unceasingly  denied  their  existence,  when  a  little  exami- 
nation would  have  shown  them  that  they  were  wrong. 
One  professor,  in  a  college  situated  in  a  community 
which  morally  is  notoriously  one  of  the  worst  in  the 
country,  was  quite  indignant  at  my  suggestion  that  in 
his  institution  any  considerable  proportion  of  the  under- 


130  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

graduates  were  diseased.  But  after  a  frank  discussion 
of  facts  and  local  conditions,  he  admitted  that  the 
average  might  be  as  high  as  thirty  per  cent.  Again  and 
again  this  fatal  blindness,  and  even  unwillingness  to 
see,  of  our  college  authorities  is  encountered  by  those 
who  investigate  the  college  home  life  from  the  only  sane 
and  safe  standpoint,  that  of  the  students  themselves. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  who  admit  the  full 
extent  of  the  evil,  but  ask  what  can  possibly  be  done  to 
meet  such  an  insidious  enemy. 

This  assurance  that  these  evils  do  not  exist  in  their 
own  institution,  and  this  failure  to  have  any  adequate 
appreciation  of  the  evil  or  of  the  means  to  be  taken  to 
lessen  it,  are  about  on  a  par  with  the  college  policy 
which  for  years  allowed  the  playing  of  intercollegiate 
games  away  from  the  home  grounds  and  in  the  largest 
cities.  This  increased  the  gate  receipts,  but  at  the  same 
time  so  aggravated  the  growth  of  vice  among  the  stu- 
dents that  out  of  very  shame  the  college  authorities  had 
to  require  all  games  to  be  played  on  the  home  grounds 
of  one  of  the  contestants. 

An  up-to-date  administrative  department  would  have 
foreseen  this  evil  result,  or  would  have  felt  at  once  the 
lowering  of  the  moral  tone  of  the  college,  and  would  not 
have  waited  to  enforce  a  remedy  until  the  scandal  com- 
pelled action.  This  is  but  another  instance  of  how  the 
college  is  always  looking  backward ;  or,  as  one  astute  pro- 
fessor writes,  who  has  widely  studied  conditions  in  many 
institutions,  especially  at  the  West: 

"I  have  noted  one  most  curious  characteristic  among 
many  of  my  colleagues — they  cannot  rid  themselves  of  the 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         131 

delusion  that  they  are  still  concerned  with  the  secluded  spot- 
less life  of  the  New  England  college  of  eighty  years  ago." 

Such  delusions  as  these  are  not  only  fatal  to  the  under- 
graduate, but  proof  positive  that  it  is  impossible  for  the 
instructors  under  modern  conditions  to  do  their  best 
work  in  their  own  department  and  at  the  same  time 
perform  satisfactorily  the  functions  of  another  depart- 
ment. Our  duty  to  the  commonwealth  and  to  all  the 
other  interests  which  center  in  the  college  demand  that 
we  shall  install  an  up-to-date  business  administration 
which  shall  anticipate  evil  conditions,  and  nip  them  in 
the  bud  or  offset  them  so  that  they  shall  not  ruin  the 
college  product  or  any  part  of  it. 

But,  thirdly,  is  there  any  tangible  proof  of  these  ter- 
rible assertions? 

Unfortunately,  yes;  although  but  a  few  examples  will 
be  given  to  illustrate  the  failure  of  these  public-service 
corporations  to  do  their  full  duty,  and  the  crying  need 
of  a  business  reorganization. 

This  question  has  been  asked  in  universities  where 
local  medical  schools  afford  opportunities  for  medical 
investigation  which  do  not  exist  in  the  ordinary  college, 
and  the  following  appear  to  be  the  facts:  In  city  in- 
stitutions, or  those  situated  in  or  very  near  factory  or 
mining  centers,  the  percentage  of  evil  and  disease  is 
usually  greatest.  This  percentage  is  much  larger  in 
the  graduate  schools  than  in  the  academic  courses;  and 
in  the  latter  the  percentages  steadily  increase  from  the 
lower  through  the  upper  classes;  and  it  is  not  too  much 
to  assume  that  in  some  cases  at  least  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  those  who  complete  the  professional  school 


132  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

courses  have  at  some  time  been  diseased.  In  some 
places  competent  authorities  put  the  percentage  higher. 
From  one  university  a  professor,  whom  I  had  asked 
about  this,  writes:  " Physicians  tell  me  that  venereal 
disease  is  common,  though  not  rife,  here";  but  these 
terms  should  be  reversed  according  to  the  testimony  of 
recent  medical  graduates  from  this  institution. 

Admittedly  and  fortunately,  this  does  not  prove  that 
this  state  of  affairs  prevails  in  every  place.  But  it  does 
illustrate  my  claim  that  the  colleges  and  universities  are 
not  doing  their  full  duty  to  the  commonwealth  or  them- 
selves. The  institution  last  referred  to  has  a  member- 
ship which  exceeds  the  combined  college  enrollment 
of  the  whole  country  sixty  years  ago.  Yet  it  takes  no 
official  account  of  a  state  of  affairs — perfectly  evident 
to  candid  investigators — which  largely  unfits  its  stu- 
dent citizens  to  do  their  best  work  during  their  course 
or  to  grow  into  the  highest  type  of  citizens  and  parents 
in  after  years.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  common- 
wealth, or  of  the  high  interests  which  the  colleges  and 
universities  are  presumed  to  safeguard  and  foster,  can 
I  be  charged  with  unfairness  or  extravagance  of  lan- 
guage when  I  speak  of  the  fatal  blindness  and  apathy 
of  too  large  a  proportion  of  our  college  authorities? 

About  a  year  ago  the  Associated  Press  sent  out  a  dis- 
patch telling  how  two  Roman  Catholic  priests  in  a  cer- 
tain city,  from  their  pulpits,  had  solemnly  warned  the 
young  women  of  their  parishes  not  to  associate  with  the 
students  of  a  neighboring  university.  Those  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  student  conditions  in  that  institution 
know  that  these  priests  would  be  justified  in  almost  any 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         133 

measures  which  they  might  take  to  protect  their  young 
women  parishioners.  A  reputable  physician  has  re- 
cently stated  that  of  his  own  knowledge  all  the  under- 
graduate members  of  a  certain  fraternity  chapter  (his 
own)  were  diseased,  with  the  exception  of  three  fresh- 
men who  had  just  been  initiated,  and  that  almost  all 
the  recent  graduates  had  suffered  in  the  same  manner. 
The  dean  of  long  standing  of  another  university,  himself 
a  fraternity  member,  told  me  that  in  his  institution  the 
student  life  was  so  bad  that  it  seemed  to  him  that  the 
upper  class  and  graduate  members  of  the  fraternities 
seemed  most  anxious  to  see  how  short  a  time  could 
elapse  between  the  regular  fraternity  initiation  and  that 
into  the  prevalent  vices  of  the  student  body;  and  he  en- 
forced this  statement  with  some  appalling  instances  al- 
most too  horrible  to  believe  and  certainly  to  repeat  here. 
In  the  college  homes  of  some  institutions  separate  towels 
and  other  supplies  are  kept  for  those  who  are  actively 
diseased;  just  as  in  many  such  homes  there  are  special 
rooms  and  accommodations,  "  boozatoriums,"  for  those 
who  are  brought  home  drunk.  In  too  many  college 
homes  there  is  a  fearful  obscenity  and  filthiness  of  lan- 
guage, but  this  is  what  is  to  be  expected  from  the  moral 
conditions  prevailing  in  the  student  life  of  those  in- 
stitutions. 

Some  very  bad  conditions  in  all  these  respects  are 
also  to  be  found  in  many  of  our  preparatory  schools;  and 
these  habits  are  carried  thence  and  spread  broadcast 
through  the  colleges  to  which  the  students  go,  thereby 
contaminating  many  youth  who  come  directly  from  pure 
home  influences.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  reflex  in- 


134          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

fluence  of  these  lower  phases  of  the  college  home  life  that 
is  likely  to  be  reproduced  in  our  high-school  fraternities 
in  such  an  insidious  form  that  they  cannot  be  combated 
with  entire  success. 

The  foregoing  are  but  a  few  examples  picked  from  a 
mass  of  evidence,  gathered  by  going  to  the  right  place, 
the  college  home,  and  by  sifting  out  the  facts  as  care- 
fully as  possible,  and  with  a  full  consciousness  of  the 
terribleness  of  the  arraignment  of  present  conditions  in 
the  student  life  department.  Everywhere  the  convic- 
tion is  borne  home  that  these  conditions  are  the  legiti- 
mate results  of  two  forces — the  social  and  moral  ten- 
dencies of  the  age  and  locality,  and  the  fatal  blindness  of 
the  college  authorities  and  alumni  and  of  parents  to  the 
real  extent  of  the  social  evil,  and  its  accompanying  vices, 
and  their  theory  that  prohibition  means  prevention — a 
survival  of  the  mediaeval  methods  of  the  earlier  college, 
instead  of  a  resort  to  modern  scientific  methods  of  at- 
tempting to  locate  the  underlying  cause  of  the  trouble 
and  then  grapple  with  that. 

But  the  growth  of  the  drink  habit  among  our  students 
is  another  chief  cause  for  the  lowering  of  college  morals 
in  the  college  community  and  home  life;  and  for  this, 
also,  the  college  authorities  and  alumni  are  chiefly  re- 
sponsible. While  our  railroads  are  enforcing  the  rule 
of  total  abstinence  among  their  employees,  and  are  even 
requiring  one  member  of  a  train  crew  to  report  another 
member  who  has  been  drinking,  our  colleges  are,  in  too 
many  instances,  directly  and  indirectly  putting  a  pre- 
mium on  the  drink  habit  and  increasing  the  toll  of  their 
undergraduates  who  must  eventually  become  confirmed 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         135 

dipsomaniacs,  and  who,  when  drunk,  are  liable  to  yield 
to  worse  temptations  which  would  not  otherwise  ap- 
peal to  them. 

As  an  example  of  how  this  is  sometimes  done  in- 
directly by  the  colleges,  we  find  that  in  one  well-known 
denominational  institution  the  college  politics  have  for 
years  been  practically  decided  at  Saturday  night  gather- 
ings in  the  barroom  of  a  country  hotel,  where  drinking 
and  the  low  stories  of  commercial  travelers  are  the 
preparation  of  some  of  the  most  influential  students 
for  the  compulsory  religious  exercises  of  the  Sabbath. 
It  does  not  require  much  time  spent  in  the  homes  of 
this  institution  on  a  Sabbath  afternoon  to  discover  that 
the  hotel  bar  has  a  greater  hold  than  the  college  church 
on  many  representative  undergraduates  who  largely 
mold  student  sentiment.  The  entering  freshman  is 
soon  made  to  feel  that  he  may  cut  church  or  sleep 
through  its  services,  but  that  he  must  be  early  and  often 
at  the  hotel  barroom,  if  he  is  to  figure  in  college  pol- 
itics and  activities.  No  faculty  in  the  land  is  more 
touchy  than  this  if  it  be  intimated  that  the  personal 
morals  of  its  students  are  low — so  low,  in  fact,  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  well-to-do  or  prominent  under- 
graduates are  grossly  immoral,  and  constant  and  often 
heavy  drinkers,  and  have,  in  neighboring  institutions 
whose  own  students  are  certainly  not  slow,  an  unenvi- 
able reputation  for  being  tough. 

In  many  institutions  if  a  man  wishes  to  be  a  strong 
factor  in  college  politics  he  must  qualify  in  his  earlier 
years  for  membership  in  the  junior  and  senior  drinking 
clubs.  This  means  that  for  a  certain  proportion,  often 


136          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

a  large  one,  of  the  undergraduates  it  is  a  great  thing  to 
have  the  capacity  of  "a  tank"  and  a  marked  ability  to 
drink  the  other  fellow  under  the  table. 

Moreover,  the  commencement  ideals  of  many  of  our 
colleges  and  the  scenes  at  many  alumni  banquets  are 
directly  conducive  to  a  constant  and  further  lowering 
of  the  moral  tone  of  the  college  community  and  home 
life.  Recent  classes  returning  for  their  reunions  must 
provide  free  beer  and  the  services  of  professional  bar- 
keepers to  prove  that  they  are  worthy  sons  of  a  noble 
Alma  Mater;  and  large  numbers  of  undergraduates  are 
urged  to  drink  at  these  free  bars,  which  are  openly 
patronized  by  many  professors.  Do  such  things  throw 
any  light  back  upon  the  habits  and  moral  atmosphere 
of  the  college  lives  of  the  recent  graduates?  Indeed,  it 
is  the  honest  belief  of  many  young  alumni  that  these 
moral  conditions  in  the  colleges  can  never  be  greatly 
bettered ;  that  they  are  inherent  in  the  college  and  must 
always  be  about  as  bad  as  at  present.  They  admit 
the  evils,  and  will  tell  of  the  conditions  as  they  knew 
them  in  college;  but  they  earnestly  contend  that  the  pres- 
ent moral  conditions  cannot  be  permanently  improved. 
They  are  absolutely  correct  in  their  conclusions — unless 
there  is  a  complete  reorganization  of  our  colleges  upon 
business  principles,  and  with  the  new  and  higher  ideals 
of  a  college  state,  and  a  full  appreciation  of  the  duties 
which  are  owed  to  the  commonwealth  and  to  the  stu- 
dents who  are  in  training  to  be  citizens  therein.  Here 
is  another  straw  to  show  what  must  have  been  the  moral 
atmosphere  which  these  young  men  breathed  in  college. 
A  professor  writes: 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         137 

"This  cannot  be  put  too  strongly.  One  of  the  greatest 
difficulties  is  with  the  returning  graduates,  few  of  whom  wish 
any  change — except  more  'quiet' — in  this  matter." 

College  and  fraternity  banquets  frequently  end  in 
drunken  orgies.  Do  such  facts  tend  to  prove  the  truth 
of  the  charges  here  made  against  the  conditions  of  the 
undergraduate  home  life?  If  so  many  of  our  promis- 
ing alumni,  who  were  prominent  in  college,  use  their 
alumni  and  fraternity  banquets  for  "  drunks,"  it  fol- 
lows conclusively  either  that  the  seeds  of  these  habits 
were  sown  in  undergraduate  days,  or  else  that  their 
college  course  left  their  moral  characters  so  weakened 
that  they  could  not  withstand  the  temptations  of  after 
life.  I  am  grieved  to  say  that  either  explanation  proves 
my  case  against  the  colleges  and  their  authorities  and 
alumni. 

The  impressionable  youth  from  the  farm,  or  from  the 
carefully  guarded  home  where  all  mention  of  such  vices 
has  been  constantly  avoided,  is  not  the  person  most  to 
blame  if  he  is  perverted  by  the  foul  atmosphere  for 
which  his  elders  are  largely  responsible;  or  if  he  imag- 
ines that  he  is  doing  only  what  the  college  world  is  doing 
when  he  joins  in  the  vices  which  he  finds  prevalent  in 
his  own  college  home  and  among  his  intimates,  and 
sanctioned  by  the  example  of  prominent  alumni.  At 
least  he  has  pretty  good  ground  for  his  belief  that  this 
is  a  fair  representation  of  the  whole  college  life  and 
"that  everybody  does  it."  It  is  not  at  all  surprising 
that  under  such  conditions  we  find  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  our  students  are,  before  graduation,  steady 
tipplers  if  not  incipient  dipsomaniacs.  They  are  not 


138          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

content  with  drinking  beer,  but  must  have  cocktails  and 
highballs  and  similar  stimulants  as  regularly  as  old 
topers. 

What  would  happen  in  a  business  department  where 
such  an  atmosphere  was  discovered?  Do  our  college 
authorities  or  our  undergraduates  appreciate  that  many 
of  the  latter,  if  they  are  to  hold  responsible  positions, 
must  give  surety  bonds  ?  And  that  the  bond  will  not  be 
issued  if  the  applicant  is  found  to  be  a  heavy  drinker  or 
immoral?  Or  that  the  bond  will  provide  in  substance 
that  the  employer  "will  immediately  notify  the  surety 
in  writing  upon  becoming  aware  that  the  employee  is 
gambling,  speculating  or  committing  any  disreputable, 
lewd  or  unlawful  act?"  Is  this  the  true  ideal  of  a 
college  education  for  citizenship? 

It  has  been  claimed  that  twenty  per  cent  of  the  men 
who  come  to  the  Water  Street  Mission,  and  one  third  of 
those  who  ask  for  beds  at  the  Bowery  Missions  in  New 
York  City  are  college  men,  and  that  over  one  hundred 
college  graduates  are  behind  the  bars  at  Sing  Sing. 

This  must  be  taken  with  the  qualification,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  it  covers  not  only  college  graduates,  but  all 
those  who  have  had  any  higher  education,  here  or 
abroad,  corresponding  to  our  college  course;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  it  covers  but  a  small  fraction  of  two  per 
cent  of  our  total  population.  Any  decent  business  ad- 
ministrative department  would  long  ago  have  realized 
that  thfe  was  largely  the  college  waste  heap,  and  that 
here  were  sociological  problems  of  the  highest  moment 
to  it  and  its  future  success  and  which  it  ought  to  study 
first  of  all.  The  record  could  not  be  as  bad  as  it  is  if  the 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         139 

duty  of  the  college  to  the  commonwealth  was  really  par- 
amount in  the  eyes  of  college  authorities  and  alumni. 

The  position  of  the  college  authorities  upon  this  whole 
question  of  the  student  life  and  the  college  home  is  well 
summed  up  by  a  distinguished  professor,  investigator 
and  thinker,  born  and  educated  abroad,  who  writes: 

"What  you  say  of  the  inattention  of  the  authorities  can 
be  no  more  astounding  to  you  than  it  has  long  been  to  me. 
It  is  the  most  nonplussing  fact  that  I  have  encountered. 
Most  astounding  is  their  satisfaction  with  things  as  they  are. 
Did  you  ever  know  folk  who  sang  so  many  paeans  to  them- 
selves?" 

Of  this  letter  a  college  professor  writes: 

"I  greatly  doubt  the  fairness  of  this.  I  believe  the  general 
attitude  to  be  (i)  We  cannot  do  anything  to  remedy  this. 
(2)  If  we  could,  the  demands  of  our  professional  duties 
leave  us  no  time." 

I  can  only  say  in  passing  that  this  is  one  of  the  best 
arguments  that  I  have  heard  for  a  separate  administra- 
tive department  which  can  do  something  and  which  has 
time  for  that  which  is  far  more  important  and  funda- 
mental than  instruction  in  books,  to  wit,  character- 
building! 

Surely  the  evidence  need  not  be  multiplied,  as  it  could 
easily  be,  to  show  that  I  am  justified  in  my  assertion, 
here  repeated,  that  "  in  many  of  our  larger  colleges  and 
universities,  and  in  too  many  of  our  smaller  ones,  a  very 
considerable  part  of  the  college  home  life  is  rotten — 
terribly  so." 

I  am  not  now  discussing  these  things  from  a  moral  or 
religious  standpoint,  but  merely  as  a  reorganizer  who  is 
trying,  in  a  purely  business  way,  to  determine  whether 


140  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

our  colleges  do  need  reorganizing  because  their  admin- 
istrative and  student  life  conditions — which  lie  at  the 
very  foundation  of  their  usefulness  to  the  individual  and 
the  commonwealth — are  thoroughly  and  unnecessarily 
bad;  and  what  are  the  essential  elements  of  the  college 
which  must  be  considered  when  preparing  a  plan  of 
reorganization;  and  what  are  the  evils  to  be  avoided 
in  the  future,  and  the  methods  by  which  this  shall 
be  done.  This  is  solely  a  dispassionate  discussion  of 
whether  our  colleges  should  be  reorganized  by  admin- 
istrative experts  on  modern  business  principles,  or  by 
their  own  pedagogical  experts  on  college  ideals  and  by 
college  methods,  so  called. 

Viewing  our  institutions  from  the  business  man's 
standpoint,  and  not  from  that  of  the  moralist  or  theo- 
logian or  cataloguer,  we  find  vicious  methods  and  ideals 
which  waste  the  time,  strength  and  temper  of  teachers 
and  taught;  which  largely  unfit  the  pupils  for  future 
good  work,  while  failing  to  properly  train  them  as  in- 
dividuals; which  fail  to  use  to  advantage  the  various 
available  agencies  which  would  enable  them  to  do 
better  work;  which  omit  to  study  or  combat  the  influ- 
ences which  corrupt  the  college  community  and  home 
life;  which  build  high  the  college  waste  heap,  yet  neglect 
utterly  to  study  it,  or  even  to  realize  what  a  reflection 
it  is  upon  the  institution  that  the  heap  steadily  grows 
larger  instead  of  smaller. 

But  there  is  also  another  and  even  higher  view  that 
must  be  taken  of  this  matter.  I  have  shown  how 
the  colleges  have  become  quasi  states,  because  of  the 
powers,  rights,  functions  and  bounties  which  have  been 


The  College  Home  and  Colleges  Vices        141 

conferred  upon  them  by  the  commonwealth,  and  that 
in  return  they  owe  important  reciprocal  duties.  The 
home  is  admittedly  at  the  foundation  of  the  state.  The 
colleges  are  committing  an  unutterable  crime  against 
the  state  and  all  its  citizens  if,  while  they  are  educat- 
ing our  young  men,  they  do  not  do  all  in  their  power 
to  safeguard  their  future  homes  from  drunkenness 
and  disease.  Physicians  tell  us  that  one  form  of  these 
diseases  can  never  be  surely  cured,  and  that  we  can 
never  know  certainly  that  the  other  form  is  permanently 
cured.  How  well  are  the  colleges  repaying  their  obli- 
gations to  the  state  and  to  the  public  when  they  allow 
vice  to  grow  rampant  in  the  college  homes — it  makes 
but  little  difference  whether  disease  is  "common"  or 
''rife" — and  yet  do  not  raise  a  finger  toward  concert- 
edly  studying  the  facts,  or  toward  getting  at  the  real 
source  of  the  evil,  or  toward  stamping  it  out,  as  our 
Government  has  stamped  out  yellow  fever  in  its  trop- 
ical possessions.  The  colleges  are  too  often  blind 
leaders  of  the  blind,  with  low  ideals,  and  a  terrible 
record  behind  them  from  which  they  must  be  rescued 
by  reorganization.  I  repeat  that  their  record  as  pub- 
lic corporations  is  in  many  ways  far  below  that  of 
many  of  their  fellow-servants,  the  public-utilities  cor- 
porations. 

If,  without  intelligent  study  of  their  own  problems 
and  conditions,  or  the  adoption  of  ordinary  business 
methods  amply  sufficient  to  remedy  the  evils  in  large 
part,  our  colleges  are  yearly  discharging  into  the  body 
politic  thousands  of  diseased  men  or  incipient  drunk- 
ards who  otherwise  ought  to  be  largely  the  fathers  of 


142  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

the  educated  class  in  the  next  generation,  the  question 
is  one  that  chiefly  affects,  not  the  wrongdoing  colleges, 
firmly  secure  in  their  rich  and  inalienable  endowments, 
but  the  state  and  its  future,  and  the  helpless  families, 
wives  and  children  which  it  is  bound  to  protect. 

Carefully  prepared  statistics  in  an  old  and  prominent 
university  indicate  that  only  about  seventy  per  cent  of 
its  present  graduates  marry,  and  that  the  average  num- 
ber of  children  per  family  is  2.3,  including  female 
children,  those  who  die  in  youth  and  those  who  do  not 
marry ;  or  about  forty  per  cent  of  the  number  of  children 
per  family  a  century  earlier.  It  is  evident  that,  if  this 
is  anything  like  a  fair  average,  the  ordinary  college 
class  does  not  even  reproduce  itself,  and  that  the  college 
would  actually  soon  die  out  if  it  depended  for  students 
solely  upon  all  of  the  sons  born  to  its  graduates.  In 
other  words,  the  college  graduates  belong  to  a  tree 
which  is  dying  down,  and  not  to  one  which  is  increasing 
in  size.  Physicians  tell  us  that  the  conditions  which 
have  been  referred  to  as  prevailing  in  some  college  homes 
may  be  in  part  responsible  for  results  such  as  those  above 
named.  But  however  this  may  be,  is  it  too  much  for 
the  parents  of  the  land  to  demand  of  the  college  author- 
ities a  strict  accounting  as  to  how  they  have  fulfilled  the 
duty  which  they  owe,  to  the  commonwealth  and  to  the 
homes  therein,  to  train  and  turn  out  the  highest  types 
of  husbands,  fathers  and  friends? 

At  this  point  the  college  home  touches  every  home, 
and  its  home  life  affects  the  future  of  the  state;  and  the 
state  and  every  parent  in  it  have  the  right  to  demand  a 
reorganization  of  this  part  of  the  college  economy,  and 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         143 

its  proper  administration  in  the  future;  so  that  here  at 
least  there  shall  be  a  college  education  for  citizenship  in 
all  its  planes. 

The  state  cannot  assume  the  functions  of  the  colleges, 
nor  administer  their  $600,000,000  of  funds  and  property. 
It  can  only  force  them  to  do  their  own  work  properly, 
and  to  keep  their  student  life  department  clean  and  en- 
nobling, so  that  they  and  their  graduates  shall  not  be 
an  actual  menace  to  the  state  itself  and  to  its  innocent 
citizens,  especially  in  the  future. 

This  chapter,  to  this  point,  has  been  submitted  to 
many  men  prominent  in  and  out  of  college,  and  I  have 
been  much  interested  in  their  replies.  One,  who  is  at 
the  head  of  a  great  and  successful  religious  movement 
among  undergraduates  at  the  West,  writes:  " These  are 
hard  things  but  true."  Another  says:  "You  have 
rather  understated  the  facts  as  I  believe  them  to  be  in 
four  Southern  institutions  with  whose  student  condi- 
tions I  am  intimately  acquainted."  One  thinks  that, 
from  his  own  experience,  the  facts  must  be  exagger- 
ated. Two  doubt  the  advisability  of  publishing  the 
facts  so  fully,  yet  expressly  state  that  they  were  cor- 
rectly given. 

Not  one  denies  thaty  in  the  main,  the  arraignment  is 
justifiable  and  correct. 

Not  one  has  a  word  to  say  approving  the  past  course 
oj  the  colleges  in  these  matters. 

Others  have  thanked  me  for  the  chapter,  and  heartily 
approved  of  my  position  therein.  One  divine,  who  for 
many  years  has  been  at  the  head  of  the  college  work  of 
a  great  religious  denomination,  in  answer  to  my  ques- 


144          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

tion  whether  I  should  publish  this  chapter,  replied :  "Yes, 
by  all  means;  even  if  you  print  nothing  else." 

For  the  purposes  of  the  reorganizer,  the  question  of 
chief  importance  is  not  whether  the  statements  of  this 
chapter  are  exaggerated.  That  is  merely  a  matter  of 
degree.  The  really  important  questions  are  quite  dif- 
ferent. Does  this  chapter  correctly  point  out  and  define 
dangerous  forms  of  evil  which  are  unnecessarily  prev- 
alent among  our  students?  And  correctly  place  the 
exact  location  of  these  evils  in  the  college  economy? 
And  the  manner  in  which  these  evils  are  now  regarded 
by  the  students,  parents  and  community,  and  the  col- 
lege and  fraternity  authorities  and  alumni?  And  the 
methods — if  any — now  employed  to  root  out  these 
evils,  or  minimize  their  baneful  consequences  ?  Have  all 
those  interested  in  the  college  problem,  or  who  could 
contribute  to  its  solution,  done  their  full  duty  in  study- 
ing this  ninety  per  cent  of  the  student  life,  and  the 
peculiar  surroundings  and  temptations  of  the  under- 
graduates in  the  college  community  and  home,  and  in 
applying  wise  measures  to  meet  the  conditions  thus 
revealed?  Is  the  college,  as  a  public  corporation,  doing 
its  full  duty  in  this  respect  to  the  commonwealth?  If, 
after  patient  investigation,  the  reorganizer  can  truthfully 
answer  "yes"  to  the  last  two  questions,  he  must  feel  that 
he  can  do  little  where  so  many  others,  who  should  be 
better  judges,  have  failed.  But  if  he  must  answer  "no," 
there  is  hope  that  a  correct  diagnosis  will  lead  to  a 
successful  prognosis. 

To  the  moralist,  the  mistakes  of  the  past  are  a  source 
of  regret  and  complaint;  to  the  reorganizer,  a  mine  of 


The  College  Home  and  College  Vices         145 

information ;  for  to  him  the  present  and  the  future  are 
the  important  things.  Wherefore  he  looks  upon  the 
errors  of  the  past  as  things  to  be  carefully  charted  that 
his  own  bark  may  sail  safely  where  so  many  others  have 
been  shipwrecked. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    DOMINANT    POSITION    OF    THE    STUDENT  LIFE 
DEPARTMENT 

Is  there,  then,  a  remedy  for  the  evils  of  the  student 
life  department?  I  unhesitatingly  answer  "yes,"  if  we 
are  willing  to  pursue  a  philosophical  rather  than  a  Puri- 
tanical course  —  to  adopt  modern  business  methods 
rather  than  those  heretofore  recognized  as  college 
methods. 

It  is  largely  because,  in  the  absence  of  a  separate  ad- 
ministrative department,  we  have  not  clearly  analyzed 
the  fundamental  change  in  the  college  or  fully  appre- 
ciated its  significance  to  state,  institution,  faculty,  stu- 
dents and  parents,  that  there  has  been  so  much  of  chaos 
and  conflict  in  our  modern  concept  of  the  college  and 
its  functions  and  place.  A  correct  analysis  of  the  col- 
lege itself  and  of  its  constituent  parts  ought  greatly  to 
simplify  these  problems  and  point  the  way  to  a  remedy. 
Otherwise,  let  us  candidly  confess  that  the  analysis  it- 
self is  probably  at  fault  and  that  our  argument  is  vain. 
It  is  easy  to  apply  this  test. 

Differences  and  disputes  largely  result  because  men 
argue  from  differing  premises,  not  clearly  thought  out; 
but  it  is  strange  that  this  should  be  strikingly  so  in  our 
colleges  of  to-day;  that  they,  which  claim  the  name  of 
institutions  of  higher  learning,  should  not  have  care- 

146 


Dominant  Position  oj  Student  Life  Department    147 

fully  gathered,  arranged  and  analyzed  the  facts  about 
themselves — financial,  executive,  pedagogical,  student 
life  and  administrative — and  that,  with  these  common 
premises  agreed  upon,  all  interested  in  the  college  prob- 
lems should  not  also  have  agreed  pretty  well  upon  the 
remedy  and  line  of  action. 

Let  us,  then,  again  and  further  consider  the  quasi  col- 
lege state  and  its  constituent  parts,  to  see  if  we  can  for- 
mulate and  agree  upon  some  premises  on  which  to  base 
our  future  course. 

All  will  agree  that  an  ideal  state  should  have  good 
written  laws,  honestly  and  fairly  enforced;  and  an  in- 
telligent and  upright  body  of  citizens,  who,  under  an 
enlightened  public  sentiment,  maintain  a  high  ideal  in 
their  political  and  other  relations  to  the  commonwealth, 
and  as  well  in  their  business  and  community  lives  and 
in  their  homes;  and  further,  that  any  state  must  be  pro 
tanto  a  failure  where  the  laws  are  poor  or  poorly  en- 
forced; or  where  the  political,  community  or  business 
lives  of  a  majority  of  the  citizens  are  on  a  low  level;  or 
where  the  homes  are  uncultivated  and  debasing  in  their 
general  influence.  An  upright  judge  can  give  an  im- 
partial trial  and  inflict  merited  punishment  after  con- 
viction, but  not  much  else.  It  is  not  his  duty  to  detect 
crimes,  or  to  apprehend  the  criminal  or  to  render  the 
verdict.  Notwithstanding  all  his  efforts,  justice  may  fail 
because  the  laws  are  faulty,  or  because  public  senti- 
ment shields  the  criminal,  or  even  aids  in  his  defense  or 
forces  his  pardon  after  conviction.  The  law,  the  citi- 
zens, the  home,  and  the  enfolding  public  and  private 
sentiment  which  ennobles  each  of  these,  are  each  and 


148  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

all  of  them  essential  to  the  perfect  commonwealth,  and 
anything  short  of  this  makes  it  imperfect  as  a  whole,  no 
matter  how  perfect  any  one  department  or  plane  may 
be.  So  a  man  cannot  be  a  complete  and  efficient  citi- 
zen unless  he  fulfills  all  the  obligations  which  he  owes 
under  the  written  law  of  the  state,  and  in  his  general 
political  or  civic  relations,  and  under  the  unwritten  law 
and  comity  of  his  community,  business  or  profession,  and 
in  his  home.  No  matter  how  perfect  he  may  be  in  any 
one  of  these  planes  of  his  life,  he  is  one-sided  and  in- 
complete if  he  unnecessarily  fails  in  the  others. 

Our  colleges  have  failed  to  agree  as  to  their  ideals  be- 
cause they  have  not  adequately  appreciated  that  they, 
too,  are  pro  tanto  unsuccessful  if  they  do  not  do  their 
full  duty  to  each  student  citizen;  if  they  do  not,  so  far 
as  possible,  within  the  limitations  of  a  four  years' 
course,  set  him  forward  on  his  road  to  become  a  well- 
rounded  man,  trained  to  do  clean  and  clear  intellectual 
work,  whatever  his  vocation;  but  also  able  and  willing 
to  take  his  part  in  the  struggle  for  the  highest  and  best 
in  the  political,  professional  or  business  life  of  any  com- 
munity of  which  he  may  become  a  member;  and  as 
capable  of  becoming  the  head  of  a  family  which  shall 
in  the  end  add  to  the  citizen  wealth  of  the  common- 
wealth. Here,  too,  is  the  real  duty  of  the  college  to  the 
state :  not  merely  to  turn  out  strong  and  fully  developed 
scholars,  but  wholesome  citizens  who  shall  be  well-de- 
veloped students  and  thinkers,  high-minded  business  or 
professional  men,  fathers  of  ideal  homes,  and  able  to 
lead  in  political,  civic  or  social  affairs.  Some  of  these 
objects  are  before  each  of  our  colleges,  or  before  some 


Dominant  Position  o]  Student  Lije  Department     149 

men  in  every  college,  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
any  institution  has  had  them  all  so  clearly  before  it  that 
it  has  thoroughly  appreciated  the  true  relative  functions 
of  the  instructional  department  and  of  the  college  com- 
munity and  home  life,  in  the  education  and  training  of 
the  future  citizen,  which,  for  four  years,  has  been  placed 
by  the  commonwealth  in  the  keeping  of  the  college. 

Hence,  for  reorganization  purposes,  we  may  classify 
our  colleges,  or  the  dominant  influences  within  them, 
according  to  the  predominance  in  each  (a)  of  the  peda- 
gogic, or  (6)  of  the  college  community,  or  (c)  of  the  col- 
lege home  life  forces. 

(a)  We  find  one  class  of  colleges  or  college  forces 
which  places  an  undue  emphasis  upon  what  they  are 
pleased  to  call  scholarship,  but  which  may  too  often  be 
merely  rank,  and  a  diploma  under  a  vicious  marking 
system,  or  mere  intellectual  acquisitiveness  with  no  abil- 
ity to  impart  or  use  for  the  good  of  others,  for  it  may 
be  united  with  a  poor  physique,  the  habits  of  a  recluse 
or  crank,  the  shortsightedness  of  a  bigot,  the  manners 
of  a  boor  or  a  general  inefficiency.  The  result  may  be 
an  intellectual  prodigy,  but  a  practical  failure  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  state,  the  citizen,  the  business  or  pro- 
fessional man,  and  the  family.  There  have  been  many 
such  cases  among  those  who  have  graduated  in  the  first 
ten  of  their  college  class.  In  these  instances  the  merely 
pedagogic  or  book-learning  side  of  the  course  is  liable 
to  be  overdeveloped;  and  the  unthinking  or  prejudiced, 
seeing  its  manifold  failures  to  produce  efficient  and 
all-around  citizens,  condemn  the  institutions  where 
these  ideals  are  followed  too  exclusively.  Even  Phi 


150          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

Beta  Kappa  honors  may  be  so  misused.  Only  recently 
I  asked  an  unusually  bright  and  capable  student,  at  the 
end  of  his  junior  year,  why  he  had  not  gotten  into  Phi 
Beta  Kappa.  He  replied  that  he  could  easily  have 
done  so  if,  like  many  of  his  classmates,  he  had  elected 
certain  easy  courses  in  which  he  could  have  taken  high 
rank  with  no  exertion;  but  that  he  planned  to  study 
law,  and  felt  that  he  needed  all  the  history  and  eco- 
nomics that  he  could  get.  By  so  doing  he  had  gained 
much  better  preparation  for  his  life's  work  but  had  lost 
in  college  rank,  and  evidently  had  acquired  a  contempt 
for  the  men  who  studied  for  rank  rather  than  for  worth. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  upon  every  college  faculty  there 
are  some  who  apparently  look  upon  college  rank  as 
synonymous  with  a  college  education,  and  who  cannot 
understand  that,  in  truth,  the  studying  for  rank  in 
college  may  have  blotted  out,  in  many  instances,  any 
ideal  of  training  for  complete  and  efficient  citizenship 
in  the  future.  I  am  not  in  the  least  decrying  so-called 
scholarship  in  colleges.  On  the  contrary,  I  would  have 
more  and  more  and  still  more  of  it  in  the  reorganized 
college,  if  it  means  the  ability  to  think  clearly  and  well. 
But  I  would  not  exalt  the  spurious  article — the  marking 
system  variety.  The  college  course  is  not  to  make  a  man 
a  scholar  but  to  render  him  scholarly.  True  scholar- 
ship can  come  only  in  the  graduate  school,  followed  by 
years  of  independent  work.  The  college  course  can 
only  implant  or  nourish  the  seeds  of  scholarliness,  the 
desire,  ambition  and  ability  to  become  a  scholar. 

I  would  let  true  scholarliness  count  for  its  exact  value 
in  rounding  out  the  character  and  efficiency  of  the 


Dominant  Position  of  Student  Life  Department     151 

future  citizen.  I  would  build  it  deep  into  the  reor- 
ganized college  that  manhood,  not  marks — wisdom,  not 
knowledge — efficiency  and  unselfishness,  not  a  diploma 
and  selfishness — are  what  will  count  in  the  world's  work 
of  the  individual  in  the  years  to  come.  I  would  gladly 
double  the  amount  of  solid  intellectual  work  done  by  the 
average  student,  but  at  the  same  time  I  would  make  it 
perfectly  plain  to  him  that  I  was  not  aiming  to  raise  his 
college  rank  but  his  future  effectiveness — and  the  aver- 
age student  would  respond  most  heartily. 

(b)  Another  class  of  colleges — or  the  dominant  in- 
fluences therein — have  placed  an  undue  emphasis  upon 
the  college  community  life,  chiefly  as  seen  in  intercol- 
legiate athletics.  Admittedly,the  results  have  been  dis- 
astrous in  many  ways,  and  on  every  side  we  hear  these 
results  held  up  to  prove  that  all  intercollegiate  athletics 
should  be  abolished.  Yet  these  contests,  and  the 
training  and  coaching  incident  to  them,  may  have 
their  undoubted  use  in  rounding  out  certain  phases  of 
the  character  of  the  future  citizen  which  cannot  be 
gotten  from  mere  books  or  recitations.  Such  contests, 
rightly  conducted,  teach  the  student  citizen  loyalty,  en- 
thusiasm, discipline,  unselfishness,  and  the  ability  to  or- 
ganize his  fellows  for  a  common  purpose  and  to  work 
with  others  for  such  a  purpose.  Everything  which  help- 
fully trains  the  student  citizen  in  his  college  community 
life  tends  to  make  him  a  broader  minded  and  more 
efficient  citizen  in  after  years  when  the  commonwealth 
asks  what  important  political  and  civic  benefits  it  is 
to  derive  from  the  talents  committed  for  four  years 
to  the  control  of  the  institution,  as  distinguished  from 


152  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

the  parents'  home  and  the  business  world.  Admittedly, 
in  intercollegiate  athletics  the  college  community  life  has 
been  too  often  overstimulated  and  overdeveloped,  and 
the  strictly  studious  side  has  been  improperly  dwarfed 
and  neglected.  But  the  enthusiasm  of  modern  college 
reunions  and  commencements,  and  the  vast  sums  of 
money  which  have  flowed  therefrom  into  the  college 
coffers,  have  been  largely  the  result  of  the  inspiring 
college  community  life.  Presidents  and  faculties  have 
encouraged  intercollegiate  contests  because  thereby 
they  have  gotten  hold  of  their  own  alumni  and  have 
brought  into  view  the  financial  needs  of  the  college. 
But  they  should  have  seen  that  if  there  was  any  chi- 
canery in  their  intercollegiate  athletics,  to  that  extent 
they  unfitted  their  student  citizens  for  clean  citizenship 
and  civic  righteousness  in  future  years. 

(c)  But  there  is  a  third  class  of  colleges  in  which  an 
undue  emphasis  has  been  placed  upon  the  college  home 
life,  and  in  which  the  social  activities  are  apt  to  be  over- 
stimulated  so  long  as  undue  prominence  is  given  to  the 
college  home.  The  fraternity  and  club  have,  or  may 
have,  their  great  and  beneficent  uses  in  rounding  out  the 
character  of  the  future  citizen.  They  can  and  often  do 
furnish  him  with  the  polish  and  social  culture  which 
will  give  him  great  power  for  good  in  after  years.  They 
can  or  should  train  the  personal  traits  and  moral  qual- 
ities which  will  go  to  make  him  the  good  son,  husband, 
father  and  friend,  and  able  to  get  on  with  his  fellow- 
men,  and  which  assuredly  are  not  less  important  than 
mere  intellectual  vigor  or  intelligent  citizenship.  I  have 
seen  too  often  with  my  own  eyes  the  splendid  educa- 


Dominant  Position  oj  Student  Lije  Department     153 

tional  effects  of  a  good  fraternity  home  to  have  any 
doubt  as  to  its  real  power.  But  I  have  been  impressed 
by  the  danger  that  such  a  home  may  make  a  man  lazy 
rather  than  vicious,  and  that  it  must  have  some  un- 
failing gauge  upon  the  outside  which  will  insure  good 
intellectual  results  within  the  home,  as  well  as  the  un- 
doubted social  benefits  which  come  from  a  good  home 
either  within  or  without  the  college.  As  there  may  be 
overdevotion  to  study  or  to  athletics,  so  there  may  be 
overattention  to  the  social  functions  and  other  distrac- 
tions of  the  college  home. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  one  weighty  objection  is  made 
to  the  fraternities.  They  do — like  soft  culture  courses, 
and  unlimited  electives,  and  overstrenuous  athletics, 
and  many  other  unregulated  parts  oj  the  college — tend  to 
distract  the  attention  of  the  institution  and  its  students 
away  from  scholarliness  and  interfere  with  good  peda- 
gogical work.  But,  as  we  shall  see,  the  trouble  is  not 
with  the  fraternities  nor  peculiar  to  them.  We  are  look- 
ing at  the  effect,  and  not  at  the  cause,  which  lies  far 
deeper  and  in  the  college  organization.  All  these  things 
are  important  elements  in  a  college  education  adapted  to 
modern  conditions,  and  have  their  essential  places  there- 
in. But  they  have  not  been  kept  in  their  proper  places 
nor  within  their  proper  spheres,  and  it  will  not  be  diffi- 
cult for  us  to  see  why  this  has  been  so.  Therefore,  let 
us  watch  carefully  for  the  reasons  why,  in  an  institution 
devoted,  like  Alma  Mater,  to  higher  instruction,  the 
best  and  the  most  necessary  innovations  and  improve- 
ments have  run  amuck,  and  have  wrought  widespread 
demoralization,  and  great  and  irreparable  loss  of  splen- 


154          The  Reorganization  o)  Our  Colleges 

did  citizen  material,  and  unpardonable  failure  as  a 
public  servant.  There  must  be  such  reasons!  Hence 
we  can  never  propose  and  carry  out  an  adequate  and 
successful  reorganization  until  we  can  put  our  finger 
upon  the  exact  point  in  the  college  economy  where  the 
evils  have  been  wrought  and  the  mistakes  made,  nor 
until  we  have  plucked  up  courage  to  fight  these  evils  in 
the  right  way  at  the  right  spot — and  no  other !  We  shall 
then  perceive  that  the  trouble  has  not  been  with  these 
new  elements  of  the  college,  but  rather  with  the  way  in 
which  these  elements  have  been  handled;  that  electives, 
and  Germanization,  and  the  new  college-university,  and 
intercollegiate  athletics,  and  the  fraternities,  and  scores 
of  other  things,  are  essentially  right  and  necessary  in  the 
new  college  state — although  they  were  not  in  the  older 
college  based  upon  the  home — and  that  the  trouble  has 
been  that,  in  all  these  cases,  we  have  allowed  the  means 
to  become  the  end,  the  servant  to  become  the  master; 
and  that  the  pedagogical  department  has  suffered  cor- 
respondingly. I  intend  to  show  why  this  has  been  so, 
and  what  is  to  be  the  remedy. 

We  shall,  then,  have  made  material  progress  toward 
the  solution  of  our  reorganization  if  we  can  substan- 
tially agree  upon  the  following  premises:  that  the  col- 
lege annually  receives  a  fresh  crop  of  embryo  citi- 
zens, breadwinners  and  home-makers,  for  whose  training 
for  citizenship  it  is  directly  responsible  to  the  state, 
and  whose  future  usefulness  and  development  depend 
largely  upon  the  true  wisdom  displayed  during  these 
four  years  by  the  college  authorities;  that  this  annual 
crop  is  a  heterogeneous  collection  of  all  kinds  and 


Dominant  Position  oj  Student  Lije  Department     155 

conditions,  mental,  moral,  physical  and  financial,  in 
all  stages  of  life-growth,  and  each  requiring  individual 
treatment  to  counteract  his  weak  points  and  substan- 
tially develop  his  strong  ones;  that  this  treatment  must 
be  applied  in  varying  measure  to  the  individual  by  the 
college  in  its  coordinate  and  correlated  instructional 
and  student  life  departments;  that  each  of  these  de- 
partments has  its  great  and  substantial  functions  at  this 
period  of  the  young  man's  life  and  growth,  and  that 
failure  properly  to  use  any  of  these  functions  may  result 
in  stunting  his  future  usefulness  as  a  citizen,  bread- 
winner or  home-maker;  that  these  departments  have 
differing  values  and  possibilities  in  rounding  out  differ- 
ent students  to  complete  manhood;  that  therefore  each 
department  must  be  maintained  in  a  state  of  the  highest 
efficiency  to  do  its  part  for  each  citizen  student;  that 
this  is  the  period  when  "the  preparation  for  life"  is 
about  drawing  to  its  close,  and  "life  in  earnest"  is 
about  to  begin;  and  that  many  of  the  things  which  are 
to  round  out  the  character  and  efficiency  of  the  future 
adult  citizen  are  not  pedagogical  in  their  nature  or  are 
only  remotely  so. 

If  we  can  agree  upon  these  premises  it  will  be  not 
very  difficult  to  classify  and  arrange  most  of  the  fail- 
ures and  mistakes  of  our  colleges,  for  they  fall  within 
the  pedagogical,  or  the  college  community  or  the  college 
home  life  departments,  which  have  been  running  wild, 
without  governor  or  fly  wheel,  and  which  can  be  brought 
back  to  their  true  relative  positions  and  values  only 
through  an  outside  agency,  the  separate  administrative 
department. 


156          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

And  what  is  true  of  the  colleges  tends  to  be  even 
more  true  of  the  undergraduates.  If  the  doctors  cannot 
agree,  much  more  will  the  patients  be  at  sea.  If  the 
colleges  themselves  have  not  been  able  to  study  out  the 
meaning  and  relative  values  of  their  own  departments 
and  functions,  much  more  are  the  undergraduates  and 
their  parents  likely  to  become  confused  in  this  regard. 
Hence  we  find  the  students  also  divided  largely  into 
three  classes  who  respectively  lay  supreme  importance 
upon  the  studious,  the  athletic  or  the  social  sides  of  the 
college  state,  and  thereby  lose  sight  of  the  true  educa- 
tional symmetry  and  effectiveness  of  the  course  as  a 
whole,  but  according  to  the  individual  needs  of  each 
student. 

Let  us,  then,  get  a  clear  conception  of  the  objective 
of  the  college.  Intellectual  training  is  not  its  chief  ob- 
ject, but  rather  citizenship  and  the  training  for  splendid 
and  fruitful  work  as  a  citizen  in  the  broadest  sense  in 
which  the  word  can  be  used.  The  agencies  by  which 
this  true  and  well-rounded  citizenship  is  to  be  devel- 
oped are  intellectual  training  and  the  college  commun- 
ity and  home  lives.  Of  these,  intellectual  training  is 
usually,  but  not  always,  the  chief  agency  of  the  college 
in  fulfilling  its  chief  object — the  promotion  of  citizen- 
ship. But  the  most  learned  pedant  may  fall  far  short 
of  the  perfection  of  citizenship  which  his  college  course 
might  have  wrought  in  him,  and  far  short  of  the  attain- 
ments in  this  regard  of  the  men  of  lowest  rank  in  his 
class,  or  of  an  unlearned  and  unlettered  noncollege 
fellow -citizen. 

If  mere  bookishness  rather  than  citizenship  be  the 


Dominant  Position  of  Student  Life  Department    157 

chief  thing,  then  let  our  boys  be  educated  at  home  under 
tutors.  Often  this  will  cost  less  and  the  young  men 
will  have  a  greater  and  deeper  book  knowledge.  But 
it  will  be  at  the  expense  of  most  that  is  best  and  most 
character-building,  formative  and  rewarding  in  these 
four  years.  If,  then,  the  individual  student  cannot  af- 
ford to  forego  the  ninety  per  cent  of  the  student  life 
of  these  four  years,  it  is  self-evident  that  more,  much 
more,  intelligent  and  sympathetic  thought  and  effort 
must  be  spent  upon  this  ninety  per  cent  by  the  elders 
of  all  classes,  and  chiefly  by  those  who  are  not  the 
pedagogues,  and  especially  by  the  alumni  and  parents. 
Ten  instructors,  working  in  relays,  could  not  do  the 
home  work  for  its  members  which  a  good  fraternity 
home  does.  But  this  very  power  for  good  warns  us 
that  we  must  guard  against  a  like  inherent  power  for 
evil. 

Let  us  not  forget,  then,  that  citizenship  is  the  great 
object  of  the  college;  and  let  us  be  careful  not  to  con- 
fuse this  object  and  the  agencies  through  which  this 
is  to  be  worked  out.  Especially  let  us  make  this  fun- 
damental difference  plain  to  all  concerned  in  the  college 
—faculty  and  students,  trustees  and  alumni,  parents 
and  preparatory-school  agencies.  From  this  point  of 
view  the  intellectual  training  and  the  college  commun- 
ity and  home  lives  take  on  new  meanings — as  mere 
agencies — and  fall  naturally  into  their  proper  places  in 
the  college  reorganization  plan. 

While  we  may  admit  that  in  the  majority  of  cases 
the  scholastic  is  the  most  important  function  of  the  col- 
lege, we  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  effects  of 


158          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

the  college  community  and  home  lives  may  be  quite 
as  essential  in  making  the  clean  and  cultured  problem 
solver,  citizen  and  home-maker — especially  as  almost 
fifty  per  cent  of  our  college  undergraduates  now  go  into 
business  as  their  life  work.  This  fact  must  not  be 
ignored  when  we  weigh  the  relative  ultimate  value  to 
the  average  student  of  the  pedagogic  and  student  life 
factors  of  his  college  course.  Nor  must  we  overlook 
the  fact  that  in  the  eyes  of  a  large  part  of  our  college 
constituency — the  students  and  their  parents — the  stu- 
dent life  is  relatively  the  most  important  factor,  as  it  is 
in  the  eyes  of  the  authorities  of  too  many  of  our  colleges. 
Admittedly,  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  students 
care  most  for  the  athletic  and  social  elements  of  their 
course.  But  it  is  also  as  true  that  many  parents  have 
very  little  care  for  the  scholastic  side,  but  look  upon 
the  course  as  chiefly  important  because  it  tends  to  fit 
their  children  for  eminence  and  success  in  business  and 
political  or  social  life.  This  is  natural  when  we  con- 
sider how  little  real  value  true  scholastic  improvement 
frequently  has  under  the  present  college  system,  which 
too  often  subordinates  true  scholarliness  and  learning  to 
athletics  and  social  functions. 

It  is  vitally  important  to  the  instructional  department 
to  make  plain  the  value  of  scholarship  in  the  life  of  the 
future  citizen.  Else  in  too  many  cases  the  student  life 
factors  will  continue  to  occupy,  relatively,  a  too  impor- 
tant position  in  the  minds  of  parents  and  students. 
"  For  what  is  a  man  profited  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul?"  Much  more,  what  is  an 
undergraduate  profited  if  he  shall  gain  a  sixty  per  cent 


Dominant  Position  oj  Student  Life  Department    159 

marking  system  college  diploma  and  lose  the  whole 
world  of  his  future  as  a  forceful  citizen  and  clean  man 
and  true  parent?  Tens  of  thousands  of  such  diplomas 
have  been  gotten  in  the  college  pedagogic  department, 
and  at  the  same  time  as  many  splendid  futures  have  been 
lost — to  the  state,  the  community  and  the  family — in 
the  college  community  or  the  college  home.  In  many 
many  instances  which  was  the  greater,  the  ten  per  cent 
or  the  ninety?  If  you  would  know  the  true  answer, 
study  the  college  from  the  standpoint  of  the  under- 
graduate and  his  future,  and  the  college  education  from 
within  the  portals  of  the  college  home,  for  therein  you 
will  find  the  man  himself;  and  the  college  sheepskin  will 
appear  at  its  true  value  in  life  training  and  life  work. 

We  have  shown  how  little  pedagogy  has  to  do,  under 
present  conditions,  with  the  student  life  factors  of  the 
college  course;  nay,  rather,  how  pedagogy  and  the  stu- 
dent life  are  often  at  odds  and  pulling  in  different  di- 
rections. Hence  it  follows  that  some  new  force  must 
be  introduced  into  our  college  economy  which  shall  have 
the  distinct  power  and  duty  to  analyze  and  set  forth 
the  real  state  of  affairs,  and  to  lay  out  and  enforce  a 
policy  broad  enough  to  cover,  in  the  college  organization, 
the  rights,  duties  and  privileges  of  the  commonwealth, 
the  institution,  the  faculty,  the  students  collectively  and 
individually,  the  parents,  the  fraternities,  and  all  other 
persons  or  interests  in  any  way  concerned  in  the  won- 
derful cosmos  and  congeries  now  known  as  a  college  or 
university.  This  new  force  must  be  independent  of  any 
of  the  other  departments  over  which  it  must  exercise 
supervision,  yet  with  which  it  must  work  in  the  closest 


160          The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

sympathy.  To  do  its  most  effective  work  it  must  be 
self -centered  and  independent,  and  must  be  avowedly 
organized  and  recognized  upon  that  plan.  Otherwise  it 
entirely  loses  its  greatest  source  of  power  and  efficiency. 
It  is  with  this  in  view  that  we  approach  the  subject  of 
administration  as  it  is  now  known  and  practiced  in  the 
business  world,  and  the  separate  department  of  adminis- 
tration which  must  be  organized  and  developed  within 
our  colleges  if  we  are  to  get  adequate  results  from  our 
enormous  investments  therein,  past  and  present,  of  time, 
money  and  men. 

But  it  is  proper  to  point  out  here  one  great  evil  and 
wrong  which  has  grown  out  of  this  failure  to  see  whither 
the  college  was  drifting.  Boys  used  to  go  to  college  at 
twelve  to  fifteen,1  but  now  it  is  considered  unwise  and 
unsafe  to  trust  a  boy  at  college  before  he  is  at  least 
eighteen.  Candid  principals  of  high  schools  admit  that 
many  boys  might  easily  be  prepared  to  enter  at  sixteen 
or  seventeen,  but  that  they  are  kept  marking  time  till 
they  are  old  enough  to  be  likely  to  "  resist  the  tempta- 
tions of  a  college  life."  But,  as  we  have  seen,  these  are 
solely  the  temptations  of  the  college  community  and 
home  lives.  Hence  it  is  evident  that  the  failure  of  the 
colleges  to  study  and  control  the  student  life  depart- 
ment has  been  the  very  place  where  the  colleges  have 
lost  the  confidence  of  the  parents,  the  secondary-school 
teachers  and  the  world  in  general;  and  that  this  loss  of 
confidence  is  putting  a  handicap  of  one  or  two  years 
upon  many  of  our  future  citizens  who  think  that  they 
must  take  a  college  course — a  handicap  which  does  not 

»  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  Chap.  III. 


Dominant  Position  o]  Student  Life  Department    161 

exist  in  the  case  of  the  young  men  who  are  considered 
quite  fit  to  enter  business  or  the  trades  at  sixteen — and 
that  this  is  one  of  the  many  points  at  which  these  public 
corporations  fail  to  do  their  full  duty  as  servants  of  the 
state.  "College  temptations,"  then,  constitute  an  ele- 
ment in  the  life  of  the  schoolboy,  the  undergraduate  and 
the  future  citizen,  which  must  be  thoughtfully  and  can- 
didly considered  in  any  college  reorganization.  But  we 
must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  present  conditions 
have  arisen  and  become  regnant  under  the  so-called 
pedagogic  control  of  our  colleges.  We  must  look  to  see 
if  we  cannot  find  some  new  agency  or  department  which 
can  succeed  where  college  pedagogy  has  failed  so  sig- 
nally. 

An  examination  of  Who's  Who  in  America  shows  that 
a  very  large  proportion  of  our  real  leaders  are  college- 
bred  men  and  that  a  college  education  still  implies 
leadership.  It  makes  no  matter  whether,  with  the  im- 
provement of  the  high  schools,  this  proportion  will  con- 
tinue to  be  as  great  in  favor  of  the  college-bred  men. 
The  fact  remains  that,  more  than  ever  before,  the 
high-school  boy  studies  and  imitates  the  college  under- 
graduate and  his  methods,  and  that  in  this  sense  the 
college  has  a  far  greater — and  increasingly  greater — 
influence  over  the  youth  of  our  land.  The  high-school 
boy  is  not  particularly  interested  in  the  pedagogic  side 
of  the  college  but  in  the  student  life,  and  especially 
in  the  college  community  life  as  exemplified  in  inter- 
collegiate athletics,  and  to  a  less  degree  in  the  college 
home  life  as  exemplified  in  the  fraternities.  The  re- 
flex action  of  the  college  and  of  the  college  training  out- 


1 62  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

side  of  the  class  room  is  therefore  stronger  than  ever 
before  upon  the  high-school  boy,  whether  or  not  he 
is  going  to  college.  The  thousands  of  young  alumni 
yearly  discharged  into  the  body  politic  may  too  often  be 
failures  in  the  eyes  of  the  elders  but  are  quite  as  often 
demigods  in  the  eyes  of  the  lads.  Neither  elders  nor 
lads  have  now  any  criterion  by  which  they  can  surely 
judge  the  effects  of  the  instructional  department  of  the 
college  upon  the  individual,  but  anyone  can  note  the 
effects  of  the  student  life  department.  Hence  it  is  this 
latter  department  which  more  and  more  becomes  the 
standard  by  which  the  college  is  judged,  and  hence  it  is 
to  be  more  carefully  studied,  watched  and  guarded  by 
the  college  itself  and  all  those  interested  in  the  college 
or  its  undergraduates. 

Having  thus  studied  the  evils  which  have  grown  up  in 
the  colleges,  and  fixed  their  exact  location  therein,  let 
us  turn  our  attention  to  the  modern  science  of  business 
administration,  and  see  what  it  is  and  what  it  has  ac- 
complished; and,  further,  whether  the  college  mistakes 
and  failures  of  the  present  and  of  the  recent  past  have 
not  been  caused  principally  by  the  failure  to  develop  a 
modern,  distinct  and  coordinate  administrative  depart- 
ment able  to  seek  out  and  cope  with  the  stupendous  and 
complicated  social  and  educational  problems  of  the 
huge  institutions  of  higher  learning  of  to-day,  which  lie 
quite  outside  the  realm  of  pure  pedagogy. 


PART  III 

THE  SEPARATE  ADMINISTRATIVE 
DEPARTMENT 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  SCIENCE  OF  ADMINISTRATION  AND  THE  FUNCTIONS 
OF   THE   ADMINISTRATIVE   DEPARTMENT 

As  music  is  not  a  matter  of  strings  or  keys  or  instru- 
ments, and  as  true  oratory  does  not  depend  upon  the 
language  or  color  of  the  orator,  so  administration  is  not 
a  matter  of  forms  or  method.  In  its  higher  sense,  it 
is  an  atmosphere,  an  enfolding  and  life-giving  power, 
which,  consciously  and  unconsciously,  acts  upon  and 
sways  everyone  within  its  field  of  action,  and  nerves  him 
to  do  the  best  that  is  in  him  for  the  common  cause. 
Under  such  an  enthusiastic  consensus,  a  required  form 
is  not  a  fetter,  nor  a  prescribed  method  a  manacle,  but 
rather  the  best  instrument  so  far  devised  for  accom- 
plishing a  common  and  desirable  end,  at  a  particular 
time  and  place.  Since  the  use  of  that  very  instru- 
ment may  elevate  our  ideals  and  ideas,  it  may  itself 
thereby  become  obsolete  and  unfitted  to  accomplish 
the  higher  ends  to  which  it  has  shown  us  the  way; 
and  hence  as  we  use  it,  we  must  be  seeking  for  and 
substituting  new  methods  and  instruments  better  fitted 
for  the  higher  ends. 

Administration  at  its  inception  is  the  dominating 
personality  of  an  individual  rising  above  his  fellows 
and,  as  master  workman  or  proprietor,  directly  super- 

165 


1 66          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

intending  and  improving  their  joint  work  for  the  good 
of  the  common  whole  and  of  the  separate  parts.  But 
as  the  organization  grows  larger,  two  needs  develop. 
First,  that  the  spirit  of  the  chief  organizer,  rather 
than  his  personality,  shall  be  disseminated  through  the 
whole,  and  thus  reach  the  individual  laborer  or  pro- 
ducer; for  there  are  greater  ends  than  mere  organiza- 
tion and  administration  demanded  of  the  chief,  and  it 
is  important  that  his  strength  be  conserved  for  these 
higher  ends.  Hence  a  system  must  be  substituted  for 
his  personality,  which  henceforth  must  act  indirectly 
and  not  directly,  yet  even  more  powerfully  than  before, 
for  it  has  a  larger  number  to  affect.  His  personal  in- 
fluence must  be  directly  exerted  upon  a  few  and  passed 
on  from  them  to  others.  Second,  there  must  be  found 
a  way  in  which  this  personal  force  may  become  a  per- 
manent force,  acting  as  truly  and  as  surely  as  ever, 
notwithstanding  a  temporary  or  permanent  absence  of 
the  initial  personality.  Hence  the  order  of  develop- 
ment of  administration  is  first,  the  forceful  individual; 
second,  the  substituted  system ;  and  finally,  out  of  many 
such  systems,  considered  in  the  light  of  experiments,  a 
well-defined  and  widely  used  science.  Administration, 
then,  has  become  a  science,  and  the  personal  agents 
through  whom  it  has  been  worked  out  and  through 
whom  it  works,  have  become  experts  and  specialists,  in 
the  same  sense  as  the  doctors,  lawyers,  divines,  teachers 
or  other  human  exponents  of  any  other  well-developed 
science. 

New  problems  constantly  arise  in  this  new  science,  as 
in  any  other,  both  in  its  older  fields  and  in  the  newer 


The  Science  oj  Administration  167 

ones  to  which  it  must  be  applied.  But  this  does  not  re- 
quire that  the  practical  workers  in  these  new  fields  must 
learn  administration  so  that  they  shall  be  able  to  apply 
it  within  the  field  with  which  they  are  admittedly  better 
acquainted  than  anyone  else.  A  new  cost  system  in  a 
factory  does  not  imply  that  the  skilled  mechanics  shall 
leave  their  tools  to  put  that  system  into  effect.  When 
the  sleeping  sickness  of  Africa  was  to  be  met  and  con- 
quered, it  was  not  necessary  or  desirable  to  fetch  a 
native  African,  thoroughly  acquainted  with  jungle  con- 
ditions, and  educate  him  as  a  physician  that  he  might 
go  back  and  study  this  local  disease.  On  the  contrary, 
the  great  investigator  and  discoverer  of  germ  diseases 
was  sent  to  Africa  that  his  experience  in  allied  fields 
might  be  brought  to  bear  upon  local  conditions.  If 
new  problems  arise  in  any  particular  line  of  business,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  educate,  from  among  the  practical 
experts  of  that  business,  men  who  shall  become  admin- 
istrators, so  that  they  may  study  these  new  administra- 
tive problems.  On  the  contrary,  we  seek  out  the  most 
experienced  administrator  in  other  lines,  that  his  wide 
experience  may  give  him  a  broader  view  of  problems  of 
whose  details  he  may  have  had  no  previous  knowledge 
or  experience.  The  science  of  administration  has  its 
well-defined  rules  and  principles,  and  its  well-trained 
experts  and  specialists  capable  of  coping  with  any  ad- 
ministrative problem,  new  or  old,  and  wherever  it  may 
arise.  Thus  we  perceive  that  administration  is,  in  its 
essence,  distinct  from  the  rest  of  the  business,  and,  in 
that  sense,  is  a  new  graft  upon  the  old  stem,  which, 
indeed,  introduces  new  elements  which  soon  become  so 


1 68          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

much  a  part  of  the  tree  that  they  can  be  distinguished 
only  by  their  fruit,  which  may  be  the  most  valuable 
which  the  tree  bears. 

Here  is  where  the  colleges  make  their  great  error. 
They  mistake  questions  which  are  administrative  in  their 
nature  for  pedagogical  questions,  and  then  imagine  that 
if  new  problems  of  administration  arise  within  their 
walls,  their  pedagogical  experts  must  master  and  solve 
these  questions.  On  the  contrary,  they  should  bring  in 
administrative  experts  of  wide  experience  to  solve  the 
administrative  problems  which  necessarily  must  be 
simple  and,  in  the  main,  must  arise  from  the  increased 
number  of  students,  professors  and  courses,  and  the 
intricacy  and  hurly-burly  of  modern  educational  and 
social  conditions.  No  other  business  or  profession  as- 
sumes that  it  is  self-sufficient  in  everything,  and  that  it 
does  not  need  outside  administrative  experts;  but  the 
college  authorities  take  it  for  granted  that  their  business 
is  different  from  any  other,  and  that  they  are  in  a  class 
by  themselves  and  hence  must  handle  their  own  ad- 
ministrative problems.  They  erroneously  assume  that 
because  they  deal  mostly  with  human  factors  their  prob- 
lems are  different  from  and,  by  their  very  nature,  far 
more  difficult  than  those  presented  in  other  fields.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  the  human  factor  which  is  the  most 
troublesome  in  every  business  affair.  The  administra- 
tive problems  of  the  college  should  be,  and  are,  far 
simpler  than  those  of  a  great  business;  first,  because 
they  arise  in  one  spot  and  are  not  scattered  over  wide 
areas  in  the  hands  of  underlings;  second,  because  they 
arise  among  and  deal  with  our  highest  class  of  educated, 


The  Science  0}  Administration  169 

ambitious  young  men,  and  not  among  a  crowd  of  for- 
eigners unacquainted  with  our  language,  customs  or 
traditions;  and,  third,  because  the  authorities  have  con- 
trol over  the  community  and  home  life  of  the  students, 
and  so  in  one  sense  still  reserve  the  right  to  act  in  loco 
parentis.  The  ill  success  is  due,  not  to  the  inherent 
difficulty  of  the  problems,  but  to  the  fact  that  the  inter- 
ests involved — the  education  of  our  future  problem 
solvers — are  so  important  that  any  failure  whatever 
therein  is  noticeable  and  blamable. 

Possibly  my  meaning  can  be  made  clearer  by  an  actual 
example  from  the  business  world.  The  making  of  fine 
cigars  is  largely  a  matter  of  the  manual  skill  of  the  in- 
dividual workman,  although  the  cheaper  brands  may  be 
made,  more  or  less  satisfactorily,  by  machinery.  Hence 
when  a  company  recently  took  over  a  large  part  of  the 
cigar  trade  it  was  confronted,  not  so  much  with  new 
problems  of  manufacture,  as  with  new  problems  of  ad- 
ministration. Undoubtedly,  .factory  methods  had  to  be 
systematized  and  improved,  but  even  this  was  largely  a 
matter  of  administration.  The  same  hands  continued 
to  make  the  cigars — and  especially  the  finer  grades — in 
about  the  old  way  and  with  about  the  former  skill.  The 
really  important  questions  arose  in  connection  with  ad- 
ditional capital  and  with  the  handling  and  selling  of  the 
goods  after  they  were  manufactured,  and  these  problems 
were  practically  administrative  and  executive  in  their 
nature. 

But  we  must  carefully  distinguish  between  manu- 
facturing and  manufacturing  methods,  and  between  sell- 
ing and  selling  methods.  A  man  may  be  a  fine  cigar 


1 70          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

maker  but  know  nothing  about  factory  methods,  while 
a  good  factory  superintendent  may  not  be  a  skilled  work- 
man. Or  a  man  may  be  a  fine  salesman,  yet  know 
nothing  about  the  great  sales  plans  of  his  employers,  who, 
in  turn,  might  make  poor  salesmen.  Under  this  huge 
expansion  in  the  cigar  business,  the  manufacturing 
needed  merely  extension  along  lines  already  well  under- 
stood in  cigar-making;  but  the  selling  end  required  the 
application  to  the  cigar  trade,  for  the  first  time  upon  a 
very  extensive  scale,  of  administrative  methods  already 
well  known  in  other  lines  of  business,  but  adapted  to  new 
needs,  and  united  with  new  methods  evolved  to  meet 
problems  which  arose  first  in  connection  with  this  new 
business  venture. 

This  will  illustrate  one  cause  of  the  poor  results  during 
the  recent  years  of  great  expansion  in  our  colleges.  We 
must  clearly  realize  the  difference  between  instruction 
and  pedagogical  methods  or  the  science  of  pedagogy; 
and  between  college  pedagogy  and  college  administra- 
tion. College  teaching,  as  such,  is  still  the  action  of  one 
mind  upon  another.  It  is  not  a  system  or  science.  One 
person  may  be  an  effective  teacher,  yet  know  nothing 
about  the  science  of  pedagogy ;  another  may  be  expert  in 
the  science  and  yet  be  a  failure  in  actual  teaching. 
Teaching  is  productive  in  its  nature,  but  teaching  meth- 
ods are  largely  administrative.  The  essential  elements 
of  good  and  fructifying  teaching  have  not  changed  be- 
cause the  older  boarding-school  college,  drawing  its 
pupils  from  private  teachers,  has  been  evolved  into  a 
college  state  or  public  servant,  based  upon  a  public- 
school  system,  and  with  greatly  increased  administrative 


The  Science  oj  Administration  171 

problems.  The  great  teachers  of  the  olden  times  would 
find  their  level  to-day — if  they  were  not  overwhelmed  by 
poor  administrative  methods! 

The  Germanization  of  our  colleges,  the  elective  system, 
intercollegiate  athletics,  the  fraternities  and  many  other 
disturbing  elements  of  the  modern  college  state,  training 
for  citizenship  in  all  its  planes,  have  not  changed  the  es- 
sential elements  of  effective  college  teaching,  but  have 
f  merely  introduced  administrative  problems,  pedagogical 
f  in  their  nature,  which  must  be  met  by  the  use  of  well- 
known  administrative  methods,  adapted  to  college  condi- 
tions, and  supplemented  by  new  methods  evolved  to 
meet  administrative  problems  which  arise  for  the  first 
time  in  this  new  field. 

The  college  teacher  is  still  its  great  producer.  It  was 
the  duty  of  the  college  administration  to  insure  that 
neither  Germanization,  nor  electives,  nor  athletics,  nor 
fraternities,  nor  anything  else  should  have  interfered 
with  the  true  productiveness  of  the  college  teacher.  But 
it  failed  because  it  gave  attention  to  trying  to  improve  its 
manufacture,  but  not  its  manufacturing  or  administra- 
tive or  executive  methods.  It  set  about  to  improve  its 
mechanics,  but  neglected  to  improve  the  conditions 
under  which  they  worked,  and  largely  failed  to  handle 
properly  the  goods  which  they  turned  out.  Our  re- 
organization must  insure  that  henceforth  administration 
shall  make  all  these  innovations — each  valuable  in  its 
proper  plane — work  together  to  improve  the  college 
teacher  and  his  product. 

The  difficulties  of  college  administration  will  not  be 
great  if  we  do  not  persist  in  approaching  them  from  the 


172  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

mistaken  standpoint  of  present  college  sentiment  and 
methods,  which  are  based  upon  conditions  which  have 
largely  passed  away. 

The  college  authorities  fail  to  appreciate  that  admin- 
istration is  to-day  as  much  a  science  as  pedagogy,  and 
in  many  senses  a  far  greater  and  more  exact  science,  and 
quite  as  well  worthy  to  be  taught  in  college  as  are  many 
other  courses  now  in  the  curriculum,  and  as  much  en- 
titled to  a  separate  and  honorable  place  in  the  college 
establishment  as  is  the  treasurer's  office,  which  is  ad- 
ministrative in  its  nature. 

Any  system  must  be  indeed  scientific  which  can  pro- 
duce uniform,  satisfactory  and  maximum  results  in  huge 
corporations  like  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  or 
the  Standard  Oil  Company,  which  employ  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  men,  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  in  the  most 
diverse  industries  and  professions,  and  with  hundreds 
of  millions  of  capital.  Either  of  these  great  corporations 
has  an  invested  capital  equal  to  that  of  all  our  institu- 
tions of  higher  learning,  and  directly  or  indirectly  em- 
ploys as  many  men  as  there  are  students  within  all 
of  our  850  universities,  colleges  and  technical  schools. 
The  annual  income  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corpora- 
tion exceeds  the  capital  and  plant  which  our  850  insti- 
tutions of  higher  learning  have  been  able  to  accumulate 
in  270  years,  and  is  fifteen  times  as  large  as  their  com- 
bined annual  income;  yet  in  one  sense  its  administra- 
tive system  is  only  a  few  years  old.  Moreover,  this 
system  is  put  to  a  proportionately  greater  test  because 
its  $600,000,000  of  yearly  business,  under  one  admin- 
istration, is  widely  scattered,  and  not  distributed  among 


The  Science  0}  Administration  173 

850  small  and  locally  entire  plants,  each  with  unim- 
portant administrative  problems,  as  is  the  case  with  our 
colleges.  Assuredly  if  the  science  of  modern  adminis- 
tration can,  without  much  difficulty  and  almost  iner- 
rantly,  dominate  and  systematize  such  divergent  yet 
huge  forces  and  powers,  all  working  toward  common 
ends,  it  will  not  prove  unable  to  solve  the  compara- 
tively paltry  problems  of  a  college  or  university  with 
a  few  hundreds  or  thousands  of  students  and  a  few 
millions  of  capital  and  plant,  located  in  a  single  town 
and  around  a  single  campus. 

We  frequently  hear  that  some  one  connected  with  the 
educational  part  of  a  college  is  a  fine  administrator. 
If  we  inquire  closely  we  shall  find  that  he  indeed  has  an 
instinct  for  administration,  but  that,  instead  of  being 
put  at  the  head  of  a  separate  department,  he  is  pitted 
against  the  inertia  of  the  college  ideals  and  traditions. 
The  result  is  a  slight  movement  of  the  mass  and  the 
exhaustion  of  the  daring  innovator,  whose  efforts  are 
met  with  cries  of  " philistinism,"  "materialism,"  "red 
tape,"  "you  are  making  a  factory,  a  mill,  of  the  college. 
Let  us  have  at  least  one  spot  free  from  this  business, 
machine  spirit."  In  other  words,  in  a  college  a  good 
administrator  is  too  often  at  a  heavy  discount  and  is 
voted  a  nuisance;  while  in  business  he  is  at  a  great  pre- 
mium and  called  a  prize. 

In  business  affairs  the  administrative  department  is 
accepted  as  something  to  be  proud  of,  as  an  ally,  as  in- 
dispensable, and  therefore  to  be  fostered.  Hence  it  is 
not  choked  off  but  championed,  and  every  improve- 
ment in  it  is  regarded  as  a  common  triumph,  for  it 


174          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

makes  the  work  of  each  individual  more  effective  and 
hence  more  rewarding. 

In  a  well-organized  business  concern,  the  push  of  the 
mass  is  against  tolerating  a  poor  administrative  de- 
partment in  whole  or  in  part,  and  the  chief  men  are  ever 
working  for  a  better  administrative  atmosphere,  for 
they  know  that  therein  lies  their  own  salvation.  On 
the  contrary,  in  our  best  organized  colleges,  the  push  of 
the  mass  is  often  against  true  administration — if  there 
is  anyone  daring  enough  to  propose  some  administra- 
tive innovations — and  the  chief  men  of  the  faculty  are 
often  the  chief  sinners  in  this  regard.  This  is  conclu- 
sively proved  by  the  fact  that  up  to  the  present  time,  so 
far  as  I  can  ascertain,  no  institution  has  organized  its 
administrative  features  into  a  separate  and  coordinate 
department,  with  corresponding  rights  and  powers  for 
the  general  and  individual  good.  It  is  self-evident  that 
until  such  a  department  is  formed  and  honestly  and 
adequately  handled,  administration  can  never  have  a 
fair  test  in  our  colleges. 

In  many  faculties  there  is  too  much  slurring  of  the 
other  departments  or  teachers,  very  much  as  in  the 
older  schools  of  medicine,  which  were  all  measurably 
wrong,  but  each  unable  to  see  anything  good  in  the 
others.  Yet  the  newer  medicine  is  principally  made  up 
of  the  things  most  violently  opposed  and  denounced  in 
the  near  past,  and  the  things  most  tenaciously  fought 
for  by  each  school  in  the  past  are  those  which  it  now 
most  vehemently  disowns.  A  few  heart-to-heart  talks 
with  members  of  a  college  faculty  soon  reveal  this  con- 
dition to  a  business  man.  There  can  never  be  any  true 


The  Science  of  Administration  175 

administration  in  our  colleges  until  it  is  in  itself  a 
desideratum  for  which  all  will  work,  and  if  necessary 
gladly  sacrifice  something;  nor  until  it  is  no  longer  re- 
garded by  some  influential  professors  as  a  devilment  of 
those  ungodly  and  uneasy  souls  who  "  have  no  notion  of 
scholarship  or  its  needs";  or,  as  one  old  professor  de- 
lighted to  phrase  it,  of  "  Christianity  and  culture."  We 
shall  see  that  because  of  modern  conditions  a  separate 
administrative  department  in  our  huge  institutions  is 
the  only  method  through  which  we  can  ever  hope  to  re- 
store in  many  of  them  anything  like  Christianity  and 
culture;  or,  in  other  words,  a  pure  college  atmosphere 
and  clean  college  homes,  making  for  better  intellectual 
conditions  and  higher  scholarliness. 

Yet  administration,  no  matter  how  elaborately  or- 
ganized, which  lacks  the  inspiring,  cooperating  genius 
is  dead  and  useless.  "It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth. 
The  flesh  profiteth  nothing."  And  until  the  spirit  has 
made  it  alive,  and  put  every  part  of  the  college  behind 
it,  there  can  never  be  true  administration  in  our  col- 
leges in  the  sense  in  which  it  quickens  every  part  of  a 
business  concern.  As  we  proceed  we  shall  discover 
some  of  the  ways  in  which  the  spirit  of  true  adminis- 
tration has  not  only  quickened  but  revolutionized  our 
modern  business  world. 

So  long,  then,  as  we  stick  to  the  notion  that,  in  the 
colleges,  administration  must  remain  a  mere  adjunct  to 
the  whims  of  the  pedagogical  department,  we  cannot, 
from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  expect  to  develop  an 
adequate,  coordinate  and  up-to-date  administrative  de- 
partment. The  very  statement  of  this  case  should  con- 


176  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

vince  us  of  its  correctness.  But  we  shall  soon  have  its 
truth  established  by  our  study  of  the  science  of  admin- 
istration as  it  has  gradually  grown  up  in  all  large  affairs 
except  in  the  colleges;  and  thereby  the  shortsightedness 
of  the  college  policy  of  chaining  administration  to  the 
department  of  instruction  will  be  demonstrated. 

This  point  is  well  covered  in  the  following  letter  from 
a  dean  of  a  Western  university.  Notice  how  the  troubles 
spoken  of  would  be  minimized  by  a  separate  depart- 
ment of  administration. 

"The  faults  which  you  mark  in  Eastern  institutions  are 
even  more  pronounced  in  some  ways  among  our  Western 
colleges.  Their  extreme  youth,  unprecedented  growth,  and 
more  limited  funds  have  combined  to  increase  the  difficul- 
ties of  an  administrative  type.  The  college  professor  has 
not  only  to  attend  to  his  teaching  but  to  lay,  in  a  year,  foun- 
dations as  extensive  as  those  which  the  older  institutions 
of  the  East  have  been  a  half  century  or  more  in  construct- 
ing. The  faculty  creates  committees  to  organize  this  work 
and  that;  for  the  Western  institution  is  jealous  that  it  shall 
afford  all  the  opportunities  of  the  older  universities.  The 
committee  is  urged  to  investigate  thoroughly  and  to  organ- 
ize along  the  most  successful  lines.  The  faculty  applies 
personal  and  official  pressure,  with  the  result  that  the  in- 
dividual members  of  the  committee  spend  an  entirely  un- 
necessary amount  of  time  in  securing  data  and  attempting 
to  build  up  a  system,  for  the  execution  of  which  there  is  no 
sufficient  provision.  Consequently,  faculty  members  are  as- 
signed to  further  duties  in  carrying  out  the  plan  of  organi- 
zation, and  the  administrative  burden,  like  the  Old  Man 
of  the  Sea,  only  winds  itself  tighter  about  the  neck  of  the 
unfortunate  pedagogue. 

"If  your  suggested  revision  is  needed  anywhere  in  the 
world  it  is  urgently  demanded  here  in  the  West.  Our  large 
classes  and  small  faculties — too  much  to  do  and  too  little  to 
do  with — have  confined  administrative  expenditures  to  the 
minimum  possible  limit.  A  few  cheap  men,  without  any 


The  Science  oj  Administration  177 

reasonable  possibility  of  carrying  out  the  interests  entrusted 
to  them,  constitute  the  entire  administrative  force.  Yet  the 
teachers  begrudge  even  the  small  amount  of  money  which 
goes  to  maintain  this  department.  They  often  find  the  pur- 
chases made  by  a  purchasing  agent  more  expensive  than 
those  previously  made  under  their  own  management,  or  at 
least  less  effective,  since  they  are  supplied  with  poor  material 
or  cheap  apparatus  that  will  not  answer  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  intended  and  thus  becomes  promptly  an  entire 
loss  to  the  institution.  I  might  expand  ad  lib  on  this  topic." 

As  is  here  shown,  and  as  we  shall  frequently  see, 
college  administration  involves,  more  and  more,  ques- 
tions which  are  distinctly  extrapedagogical.  Hence  any 
system  which  is  under  the  control  of  the  pedagogical 
branch  is  inherently  weak  and  upon  a  wrong  basis. 
Administration  should  be  independent  of  the  peda- 
gogical department  and  directly  answerable  to  the  ex- 
ecutive, who  in  his  turn  is  directly  responsible  for  in- 
suring that  the  institution  gives  a  training  for  efficient 
citizenship  rather  than  merely  for  a  diploma,  as  a 
pseudonym  for  scholarliness. 

But,  again  and  again,  let  us  repeat  that  forms  and 
methods  are  not  administration  any  more  than  the 
level  and  compass  are  engineering.  All  these  things 
are  but  the  tools  and  implements  of  the  underlying 
science.  Administration,  so  called,  may  be  essentially 
false  and  harmful  in  the  same  sense  that  law  may  be 
bad  or  theology  false,  possibly  because  they  have  be- 
come antiquated  and  inapplicable  to  modem  conditions; 
or  as  a  medicine  may  be  efficacious  when  applied  exter- 
nally which  would  be  poison  if  taken  internally;  or  as  a 
drug  may  be  safely  put  into  the  stomach  which  would 
cause  blindness  if  put  into  the  eye.  In  the  science  of 


178  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

administration,  as  in  all  others,  a  little  knowledge  is 
dangerous.  And  right  here  some  of  our  colleges  have 
grievously  and  frequently  erred.  They  have  called  in 
accountants  and  others,  and  under  their  advice  have  in- 
stalled some  system  of  forms  and  blanks  taken  from  a 
bank  or  store,  and  have  called  this  administration;  and 
when  the  ill-advised  experiment  has  failed,  as  it  was 
bound  to,  they  have  condemned  all  business  adminis- 
tration as  inherently  inapplicable  to  college  affairs.  As 
well  might  a  farsighted  man  put  on  nearsighted  glasses, 
or  a  slightly  nearsighted  man  put  on  powerful  glasses, 
and  condemn  all  the  work  of  the  optician.  Indeed,  ad- 
ministration is  very  like  the  science  of  the  optician  in 
that  it  is  largely  a  matter  of  fine  adjustment.  As  the 
average  eye  can  usually  do  better  with  no  glasses  than 
it  can  with  those  which  are  not  properly  adjusted  to  it, 
so  a  college  may  be  better  off  with  substantially  no  ad- 
ministration than  with  a  method  not  at  all  adjusted  to 
its  peculiar  wants  and  conditions. 

Every  science,  if  wrongly  understood  and  applied,  is 
dangerously  capable  of  doing  harm.  The  trouble  with 
our  colleges  has  been  that  they  have  not  realized  that 
administration  was  a  science,  and  to  be  studied  and  ap- 
plied as  such;  and  that  a  science  presupposes  that  its 
problems  have  been  thoroughly  studied  and  diagnosed 
before  a  scientific  solution  can  be  proposed.  Ill-ad- 
vised administration  in  a  college  may  have  the  most 
disastrous  results,  but  this  is  no  reason  for  condemning 
all  administration,  or  for  refusing  to  understand  that 
college  affairs  require  a  modern  administrative  system 
and  department  especially  adapted  to  their  needs,  based 


The  Science  oj  Administration  179 

upon  the  underlying  principles  of  the  science,  yet  not 
necessarily  following  strictly  any  particular  forms  or 
methods  theretofore  used  in  other  forms  of  business. 
College  administration  presents  a  new  field  and  must 
be  studied  as  such.  As  we  have  developed  railroad  ad- 
ministration, and  factory  practice,  and  department-store 
methods,  and  banking  principles,  so  we  must  evolve 
college  administration  and  the  college  administrative  de- 
partment, and  they  closely  approximate  to  good  factory 
practice. 

There  are  two  paramount  objects  which  true  admin- 
istration accomplishes,  one  affirmative  and  the  other 
negative.  In  the  first  place,  it  collates  and  compares 
the  results  of  its  own  work  and  of  the  work  of  others  over 
which  it  presides,  and  thus  ascertains  the  true  value  of 
each  particular  of  these  results,  and  therefore  is  able  to 
winnow  the  chaff  from  the  wheat.  But,  secondly,  and 
quite  as  important,  it  makes  a  record  of  what  has  been 
done  and  how,  which  renders  it  unnecessary  to  keep 
doing  over  and  over  again  the  pioneer  work  which  is 
primitive  and  unrewarding.  Thus  it  is  kept  from  slip- 
ping backward,  and  maintains  any  heights  to  which  it 
has  once  attained ;  and  at  the  same  time  has  a  chart  by 
which  to  steer  its  future  course.  As  has  been  shown  al- 
ready, and  as  we  shall  see  more  clearly  hereafter,  the 
present  college  administrative  methods  do  not  produce 
clear  and  comprehensive  records  on  a  wide  and  uni- 
form plan,  nor  collect  and  compare  them  in  a  broad 
and  scientific  way.  Hence  the  present  system  is  primi- 
tive, with  its  best  minds  working  over  and  over,  in  a 
desultory  way,  upon  the  same  primary  administrative 


i8o  The  Reorganization  o)  Our  Colleges 

problems,  instead  of  having  these  so  simplified  that  a 
clerk,  at  ten  dollars  a  week,  could  attend  to  them.  In 
business,  important  accounting  and  other  administra- 
tive problems  which  were  worked  out  by  geniuses  within 
the  past  twenty-five  years  are  now  relegated  to  mere 
clerks.  But  the  best  administrative  minds  in  our  col- 
leges are  still  working  over  tables  and  petty  details 
which  could  and  should  be  attended  to  more  satisfac- 
torily by  ordinary  assistants.  Let  us,  then,  more  care- 
fully examine  administrative  methods  and  problems  as 
they  have  been  developed  and  treated  in  the  colleges  and 
in  business  affairs.  We  shall  thus  discover  whether  it 
will  not  be  essential  to  a  successful  reorganization  of 
our  colleges  to  apply  modern  administrative  methods, 
through  a  modern  and  separate  administrative  depart- 
ment, to  many  of  the  college  problems  which  under 
present  methods,  and  treated  as  pedagogical  rather  than 
administrative,  seem  almost  unsolvable. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

ADMINISTRATION,    DISCIPLINE   AND   ORDER   IN   THE 
EARLIER  COLLEGES 

THERE  were  no  questions  of  administration  worth 
mentioning  in  the  very  small  boarding-school  college  of 
the  ecclesiastical  period,  with  its  few  score  of  pupils 
housed  and  reciting  in  one  or  two  buildings;  any  more 
than  in  its  contemporaneous  colonial  shop  or  store,  with 
its  one  or  two  journeymen  or  clerks.  So  there  were  few 
administrative  problems  when  a  band  of  neighboring 
frontiersmen  gathered  to  fight  the  Indians,  and  fur- 
nished their  own  weapons,  accoutrements  and  pro- 
visions; or  in  the  older  ship  yard,  with  twenty  or  thirty 
men  who  could,  nevertheless,  in  a  few  months  turn  out 
the  highest  class  of  clipper  ship  then  known  to  the  world. 

Teaching  is  largely  the  direct  impress  of  one  mind 
upon  another,  and  this  is  most  easily  and  surely  ob- 
tained where  the  contact  between  these  minds  is  con- 
tinued, constant  and  direct.  This  is  truest  in  youth, 
and  less  so  as  the  recipient  mind  becomes  more  thor- 
oughly trained  and  better  able  to  think  clearly  for  itself. 
Thus  in  a  small  secondary  school,  where  the  teacher  and 
the  pupil  are,  as  it  were,  caged  together,  day  after  day, 
and  year  after  year,  the  contact  is  direct  and  the  results 
definite.  The  opposite  is  found  in  the  college  class,  and 
especially  in  the  college  lecture  course,  with  occasionally, 

181 


1 82  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

as  in  Harvard,  400  men  in  the  course,1  some  of  whom 
cannot  even  hear  the  lecturer.  In  such  cases,  and  es- 
pecially where  the  instructors  are  frequently  changed, 
the  personal  contact  must  often  be  very  slight. 

The  fundamental  relation  of  the  effective  teacher  to 
his  pupil  is  substantially  the  same  in  all  colleges.  The 
great  teacher  is  bound  to  find  his  place  and  his  pupils. 
The  variable  factors,  which  affect  the  work  of  the  ordin- 
ary or  average  or  inexperienced  instructor  in  our  col- 
leges, are  to  be  found  in  the  administration,  and  in  the 
atmosphere  in  which  the  student  must  work,  that  is,  in 
the  student  life  department.  Upon  the  college  admin- 
istrative department  must  fall  the  burden  of  making 
sure  that  in  our  modern  huge  institutions  there  is  such 
a  constant  and  close  contact  between  teacher  and  taught 
as  shall  give  the  same  kind  of  results  as  in  the  earlier  and 
simpler  days. 

Compare  the  administrative  problems  of  a  modern 
university  with  those  of  Dartmouth  under  her  first 
president: 

"  In  this  condition  Wheelock  was  at  once  the  man  of  des- 
tiny and  of  service.  All  functions  were  performed  by  him. 
He  was  the  universal  executive — scholastic,  civil,  educational, 
domestic.  In  one  of  the  college  buildings  was  kept  a  store. 
Upon  him  the  care  of  it  fell.  He  was  the  farmer,  the  miller, 
and  the  lumberman  at  the  saw-mill.  The  commons  was  a 
branch  of  his  family  kitchen;  of  it  he  was  steward.  He  was 
treasurer,  professor  of  divinity,  and  pastor  of  the  church. 
He  essentially  was  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  the  faculty. 
If  any  student  was  to  be  reprimanded,  he  was  the  one  to 
deal  the  blow;  if  the  gates  of  the  college  property  were  out 
of  order,  he  was  the  one  to  mend  them;  and  if  the  pigs  did 

1  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  pp.  177,  404. 


Administration  in  the  Earlier  Colleges        183 

damage  to  the  neighbors,  he  was  the  one  to  put  the  pigs 
back  in  their  pen,  to  settle  damages,  and  to  pour  balm  on 
the  injured  feelings.  These  and  similar  works,  with  neces- 
sary changes  of  emphasis,  were  the  works  of  Wheelock  until 
his  death  in  1779."  l 

Nor  must  we  confuse  administration  with  discipline. 
In  the  earlier  college  the  discipline  was  recognized  as 
part  of  the  student  life  and  applied  as  such,  and  it  still 
belongs  in  that  department,  and  not  to  the  pedagogical 
department.  In  a  properly  conducted  college,  disci- 
pline should  be  about  as  frequent  as  it  is  in  well-con- 
ducted church  or  factory — and  not  much  more  so. 
There  is  no  reason  why  the  young  men  themselves,  and 
the  agencies  affecting  them  in  their  college  life  and 
college  home,  should  not  do  away  with  questions  of  dis- 
cipline or  solve  the  few  cases  that  may  arise. 

After  making  due  allowance  for  modern  social 
changes,  and  for  the  different  conditions  which  now 
surround  the  students,  the  college  administrative  prob- 
lems are  those  which  come  from  increase  in  numbers  in 
students,  courses  and  faculty,  and  of  the  professions  or 
callings  of  our  graduates,  and  from  the  evolution  of  the 
college  school  into  the  college  state.  The  colleges  have 
tried  to  fit  too  many  men  for  too  many  callings  in  too 
short  a  time,  considering  the  amount  of  stuffing  and 
smattering  now  falsely  called  a  liberal  education.  We 
cannot  agree  even  yet  upon  what  the  college  is,  nor  what 
its  courses  should  be,  nor  how  they  should  be  taught; 
nor  what  are  the  functions,  educationally,  of  the  college 
community  life  and  home  life;  nor  the  true  interrelations 

i  "Highpr  Education  in  America,"  by  Charles  F.  Thwing,  p.  141. 


184  The  Reorganization  o)  Our  Colleges 

and  interdependence  of  the  various  departments  of  the 
college;  nor  upon  scores  of  other  fundamental  things, 
administrative  and  not  pedagogical  in  their  nature,  upon 
which  we  must  substantially  agree  if  we  are  to  make  true 
progress  toward  an  effective  reorganization. 

We  have  landed  in  topsy-turvydom,  and  our  scrap- 
heap  education  has  left  us  with  an  immense  college 
waste  heap,  which  we  have  never  analyzed  or  studied 
through  a  proper  administrative  department  and  in  a 
modern  way — or  else  our  mistakes  would  long  ago  have 
been  set  baldly  before  us,  and  greatly  lessened  in  num- 
ber and  importance  because  we  knew  what  caused  them, 
and  our  best  administrative  minds  could  have  gone  on 
to  something  higher  and  more  worthy  of  their  caliber. 
Hence  we  must  study  what  our  business  concerns  are 
doing  and  have  done,  so  that  we  may  know  what  our 
colleges  might  and  should  have  done  under  much  more 
favorable  circumstances  and  with  much  more  intelligent 
agents.  Thus  we  can  discover  what  the  colleges  ought 
to  do  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER  XV 

HOW  SHALL  WE  REORGANIZE  THE  COLLEGE?    THE  NEW 
PRIMARY  UNIT 

To  one  experienced  in  business  reorganizations,  the 
answer  to  this  question  seems  simple  enough  as  to  the 
principle  to  be  followed,  while  admittedly  the  applica- 
tion of  that  principle  must  be  difficult.  But  if  the 
principle  upon  which  we  are  to  proceed  can  be  estab- 
lished, its  application  is  only  a  matter  of  time  and  work, 
and  usually,  as  in  the  adoption  of  the  United  States  con- 
stitution, of  compromises. 

The  first  essential  of  a  successful  reorganization  is  an 
analysis  of  the  business  itself  and  of  its  strong  and  weak 
points,  and  thereafter  of  the  factors  which  led  to  the 
failure,  and  thus  to  the  need  of  reorganization.  Ample 
provision  must  then  be  made  against  the  baleful  in- 
fluence of  these  factors  in  the  future.  Carrying  out  this 
method,  we  find  that,  from  the  very  outset,  there  must 
be  an  entire  change  of  the  point  from  which  we  shall 
view  the  college  plant,  using  this  word  "plant"  in  a 
very  broad  sense,  rather  than  in  the  narrow  sense,  as 
applying  only  to  real  estate  and  machinery.  We  should 
make  the  teacher,  not  the  pupil,  the  unit  of  primary 
consideration  and  of  determining  the  nature  and  kind 
of  output.  As  water  of  itself  can  rise  no  higher  than 
its  source,  so  in  this  sense  the  pupil  cannot  rise  above 

185 


1 86  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

his  teacher.  In  another  sense,  the  pupil  can  and  often 
does  rise  above  his  teacher,  and  this  is  the  joy  of  all 
inspiring  and  virile  instructors.  But  usually  it  is  the 
inspiration  of  the  teacher  and  his  methods  and  train- 
ing which  enables  the  pupil  to  surpass  his  instructor. 
Hence  we  should  consider  first  the  efficiency  of  the 
latter,  and  improve  this  as  being  the  true  source  of  the 
pupiPs  scholarliness  and  subsequent  scholarship. 

In  other  words,  the  college  must  now  learn  to  con- 
sider, as  its  primary  unit,  the  capacity  of  its  plant- 
that  is,  of  its  teaching  force,  individually  and  collec- 
tively, in  connection  with  its  libraries,  laboratories, 
recitation  rooms  and  other  material  equipment.  Under 
this  plan  each  instructor  would  be  considered  and  rated, 
by  the  coordinate  and  coequal  administrative  depart- 
ment, as  a  part  of  the  college  plant  (a)  principally  and 
primarily  as  to  the  amount  of  time  which  he  must  have 
to  himself  to  conserve  and  develop  to  the  utmost,  and 
keep  in  thorough  repair  and  highest  working  order,  his 
intellectual  and  teaching  powers,  so  that  he  may  be 
capable  of  the  best  possible  work  for  the  students  and 
the  institution;  (b)  how  much  time  in  addition  he  can, 
to  the  greatest  advantage,  spend  upon  teaching;  and  (c) 
how  many  students  he  can  teach  most  efficiently  within 
the  time  allotted  to  teaching.  But  this  is  expressing  a 
layman's  opinion  upon  pedagogical  matters,  and  so  may 
properly  be  reenforced  by  expert  opinion.  Dr.  James 
H.  Canfield  says: 

"There  is  no  profession  in  which  a  man  goes  stale  more 
quickly  or  more  easily  than  in  teaching.  It  requires  rather 
unusual  independence  of  outlook  to  see  and  believe  that 


The  New  Primary  Unit  187 

positive  teaching  power  is  the  one  thing  needful,  the  one 
imperative  demand,  and  in  the  end  must  be  the  one  standard 
by  which  recognition  and  advancement  are  secured.  And 
it  requires  conscientious  class-room  work,  quickened  and 
enlightened  by  continued  efforts  for  self-improvement,  to 
keep  a  man  fresh  and  effective  as  a  teacher." 

At  this  point  we  should  make  sure  that  our  frequent 
allusions  to  business  methods  and  factory  practice  do 
not  mislead  us.  In  business  it  is  the  net  result,  the 
ultimate  success,  the  finished  product,  however  diverse, 
which  are  held  constantly  in  view.  In  one  establish- 
ment the  labors  of  thousands  of  men  may  be  concentrated 
for  years  upon  the  construction  of  a  Lusitania,  which 
shall  surpass  in  size  any  ship  theretofore  built  and  prove 
the  applicability  of  the  turbine  engine  upon  the  largest 
scale.  In  another  establishment  the  same  number  of 
men  may  be  employed  in  turning  out  millions  of  machine- 
made  products  of  a  standard  type.  But  to  insure  in 
either  case  the  best  net  results  for  the  time  and  labor  ex- 
pended, there  must  be  the  best  factory  methods  whether 
the  final  product  is  to  be  a  Lusitania,  or  5,000  automo- 
biles or  10,000,000  shovels  or  spades.  But  the  great 
danger  is  that  our  colleges,  because  of  their  size  and  poor 
factory  practice,  will  turn  out  large  quantities  of  factory- 
made  goods  instead  of  a  smaller  number  of  well-trained 
individuals.  There  is  too  much  tendency  to  be  satis- 
fied if  fifty  or  sixty  per  cent  of  the  entering  class  are  sent 
forth  at  the  end  of  four  years  as  holders  of  low-grade 
and  meaningless  diplomas,  and  too  little  determination 
that  the  institution  shall  produce  individuals  trained  to 
their  utmost  for  the  highest  future  service  as  citizens. 
It  is  because  the  reorganized  colleges  should  get  the  best 


1 88  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

possible  results  out  of  each  individual  that  I  advocate 
the  adoption  of  business  methods  and  factory  practice 
in  the  form  of  a  new  college  administrative  department. 
Only  thus  can  the  best  results  be  gotten  out  of  the  work 
of  the  instructors  of  whatever  grade. 

In  this  new  view  of  our  teaching  force  as  our  primary 
unit  we  are  merely  following  good  factory  practice.  A 
manufacturer  or  business  man  carefully  considers  and 
conserves  his  plant.  He  first  asks,  "  How  can  I  gather 
together  the  most  modern  and  improved  machinery 
and  keep  it  in  the  highest  state  of  efficiency?  "  and 
next,  "How  much  first-class  work  can  I  get  out  of 
it?" 

That  is  to  say,  he  regards  as  of  primary  importance 
his  plant  and  capital,  which  are  the  chief  factors  which 
limit  his  ability  to  turn  out  first-class  product,  and  then 
proceeds  to  run  this  plant  to  the  utmost  of  its  economi- 
cal production;  but  he  always  keeps  in  full  view  the  con- 
dition and  safe  capacity  of  his  plant.  It  is  a  cardinal 
principle  that,  at  any  cost,  machinery  must  be  kept  in 
first-class  order  and  repair;  for  here  "a  stitch  in  time 
saves  nine,"  both  in  the  ultimate  cost  of  repairs  and  in 
impaired  product.  It  is  the  rankest  folly  to  allow  a 
plant  to  run  down  or  be  overworked;  or  to  fail  to  replace 
out-of-date  or  useless  machinery  with  new;  or,  as  one 
business  and  college  friend  suggests,  "  a  scrap  heap  for 
the  second-class  machinery  is  one  of  the  economies  of  a 
first-class  factory." 

The  prime  importance  which  manufacturers  attach  to 
maintaining  and  repairing  their  plant  and  machinery  can 
be  seen  in  their  annual  reports. 


The  New  Primary  Unit  189 

For  example,  during  the  year  ending  December  31,  1906, 
the  United  States  Steel   Corporation   expended   for  main- 
tenance, renewals  and  extraordinary  re- 
placement, the  sum  of  $48,333,089.37 
which  in  this  particular  was  an  increase 
of  twenty-nine  per  cent  over  the  expen- 
ditures  of   the   preceding   year.      After 
these  and  other  deductions  the  company 
showed  net  earnings  for  1906  of  156,624,273 . 18 
out  of  which  it  further  appropriated  for 
sinking  funds,    depreciation    and    extin- 
guishment funds,  and  for  construction  86,565,333.05 
and  for  dividends  on  its  common  and 
preferred  stock,  about  forty  per  cent  as 
much,  or                                                            35»385»724-oo 
In  other  words,  the  sums  expended  for  maintenance,  re- 
newals, replacements,   depreciation,  etc.,   were  four  times 
those  paid  out  in  dividends,  and  approximately  one  quarter 
of  the  total  gross  income. 

So  also  in  railroading.    The  Pennsylvania  Lines  west  of 
Pittsburg  earned  in  the  year 

ending  December  31,  1906,  $46,036,806.22 

as  follows: 

From  freight  traffic 36,323,405 . 13 

From  passenger  and  express 
traffic,  transportation  of 
mails  and  all  other  mis- 
cellaneous sources 9,713,401 .09  $46,036,806.22 

Yet  out  of  these  earnings 
the  Railroad  Company 
expended  for  the  main- 
tenance of  way  and  struc- 
tures, and  for  the  main- 
tenance of  equipment 14,007,632 .41 

Or  over  thirty  per  cent  of  its 
total  receipts,  and  one 
hundred  and  forty-three 
per  cent  of  all  receipts 
outside  of  freight. 


i  go          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  capital  of  our  col- 
leges and  universities  is  approximately  $600,000,000  and 
their  annual  income  $40,000,000.  But  they  would  be 
horrified  at  the  suggestion  that,  like  the  great  industrial 
corporations,  they  should  devote  twenty-five  per  cent  of 
their  gross  income,  or  like  the  great  railroads,  thirty 
per  cent  of  their  gross  income,  to  repairs  and  replace- 
ments of  their  teaching  machines,  and  for  sinking  and 
reserve  funds,  etc. 

The  college  has  no  vast  depreciation  or  reserve  funds, 
and  no  ability,  on  present  lines,  to  accumulate  such 
funds  out  of  current  receipts.  Such  funds  must  come, 
if  at  all,  from  gifts;  that  is,  from  new  drafts  upon  its 
friends,  and  the  chief  executive  must  devote  his  energies 
largely  to  this  extramural  work  of  raising  fresh  capital 
rather  than  to  his  legitimate  work  within  the  walls. 

Only  after  he  is  sure  that  his  plant  is  in  proper  condi- 
tion to  do  its  best  work  does  the  careful  manufacturer 
proceed  to  make  it  turn  out  its  maximum  of  marketable 
and  first-class  product — and  no  more.  He  does  not 
overload  his  machinery,  or  ask  a  hundred-ton-per-day 
plant  to  produce  two  hundred  tons  per  day.  Overload- 
ing the  machinery  inevitably  leads  to  deterioration  (a) 
of  the  plant,  (b)  of  the  product,  and  (c)  of  the  reputation 
and  prestige  with  customers  and  the  public,  that  is,  of 
the  good  will  and  trade  name,  which  oftentimes  are  the 
manufacturer's  most  important  assets.  He  knows  that 
such  deterioration  is  too  heavy  a  price  to  pay  for  the 
added  output. 

But  our  colleges  always  have  reversed  and  still  per- 
sistently reverse  this  salutary  rule  as  to  caring  for  their 


The  New  Primary  Unit  191 

plant  and  limiting  their  output.  Whenever  any  institu- 
tion has  done  unusually  good  work  or  offered  unusual 
opportunities,  an  undue  number  of  students  have 
crowded  to  its  doors  and  have  been  meekly  received 
upon  some  theory — criminal  in  its  foolishness — that  col- 
lege machinery  is  governed  by  different  rules  than  any 
other,  and  may  be  overloaded  to  the  breaking  point,  re- 
gardless of  the  evil  effects  (a)  on  the  teaching  force  it- 
self, or  (b)  on  the  student  product,  or  (c)  on  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  institution.  Thus  has  been  caused  a  terrible 
waste  of  teachers,  pupils  and  good  name;  and,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  college  does  not,  like  the  careful  manu- 
facturer, provide  any  huge  maintenance,  depreciation, 
reserve  or  sinking  funds  out  of  which  to  make  good  this 
wastage. 

If  a  college  is  doing  unusually  good  work  with  250 
students,  it  is  pretty  sure  to  allow  its  enrollment  to  in- 
crease to  350  or  500  without  any  corresponding  increase 
in  its  capital  and  plant;  that  is,  in  its  endowment  and 
teaching  facilities,  which  should  have  been  increased  in 
a  geometrical  proportion  before  allowing  any  increase  in 
the  student  body.  It  is  easy  to  multiply  examples  of 
this  mistaken  policy  on  the  part  of  the  colleges.  Two 
will  suffice.1 

COLLEGE  A 

Productive  College  Income  per 

Year.        Students.  Funds.  Staff.  Income.  Student. 

*OI/'02  642  $2,429.594  70  $181.422  $281 

'o2/'o3  686  2,400.000  74  146.900  214 

'o3/'o4  870  2,356.455  79  181.173  208 

'o4/'o5  926  2,600.000  80  181.000  195 

1  From  Annual  Reports  of  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education. 


192  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

COLLEGE   B 


Productive        College 

Income  per 

Year. 

Freshman. 

Total. 

Funds. 

Income. 

Student. 

'02/'03 

279 

1015 

$i 

,232.344 

76 

$253.281 

$250 

'c>3/'o4 

311 

1033 

I 

,191.796 

77 

233.367 

225 

'047*05 
'057*06 

358 
402 

1067 
1213 

I 

I 

,261.444 
,296.998 

79 
85 

235-977 
256.854 

221 
213 

This  may  be  stated  in  another  form.  Suppose  that 
a  college  is  doing  work  with  500  students  at  an  annual 
cost  per  student  of  $300;  of  which  each  student  contrib- 
utes $100  in  tuition  while  the  endowment  contributes 
the  remaining  $200.  That  is,  the  total  college  income 
of  $150,00x3  is  admirably  providing  for  the  education 
of  500  undergraduates.  If  the  number  of  students  is 
increased  to  1,000  without  any  increase  of  endowment 
returns,  we  shall  have  an  income  of  $200,000,  made  up 
of  $100,000  from  tuition  (1,000  students  at  $100  each) 
and  $100,000  from  endowment  income;  an  average  of 
only  $200  per  student. 

Unless  this  increase  in  the  number  of  students  is  ac- 
companied by  a  commensurate  increase  in  endowment 
or  other  income,  we  find  that  the  growth  of  the  student 
body  is  attended  with  a  decreased  income  per  student, 
and  a  decreased  return  per  capita  for  the  faculty, 
although  the  latter's  work  must  be  relatively  greater. 

Moreover,  this  strain  is  sure  to  come  unequally  and 
unfairly  upon  the  members  of  the  faculty.  The  best 
men,  whose  work  has  made  the  college  successful,  are 
apt  to  be  overworked,  while  courses  of  other  men,  draw- 
ing equal  pay,  are  neglected,  and  these  latter  become  an 
actual  drag  upon  those  who  have  chiefly  contributed  to 
the  improvement  of  the  college.  If  the  situation  had 
been  clearly  analyzed  the  fault  would  have  been  found 


The  New  Primary  Unit  193 

in  the  lack  of  an  adequate  administrative  department. 
But  the  unfortunate  results  have  been  plainly  evident, 
and  have  prejudiced  many  bright  minds  against  becom- 
ing college  teachers,  and  have  turned  them  toward 
business  or  the  professions,  where  at  least  there 
is  appreciation  and  financial  reward  for  high-grade 
work. 

The  professors  who  have  made  possible  the  successful 
working  of  a  college  should  be  rewarded  by  better  pay 
and  more  time  for  self-improvement  rather  than  by  in- 
creasing their  burdens  and  overworking  them  to  the 
breaking  point — even  if  this  reward  to  the  teachers  de- 
mands a  substantial  reduction  in  the  numbers  of  each 
entering  class  until  the  capital  and  plant  have  fully 
caught  up  with  additional  requirements.  The  successful 
teacher  and  not  the  successful  coach  should  get  the  ad- 
ditional compensation;  for  it  has  too  often  happened 
that  a  large  increase  in  the  number  of  students  has  been 
felt  to  justify  and  require  the  employment  of  a  much 
higher-priced  athletic  coach,  but  a  lower  scale  of  com- 
pensation for  the  instructors,  especially  in  the  junior 
grades.  Certainly  this  is  a  fair  example  of  how  the  col- 
lege itself  has  placed  an  undue  premium  upon  athletics 
—the  college  community  life — at  the  expense  of  the 
pedagogical  forces  and  intellectual  worth. 

The  wise  merchant  or  manufacturer  rewards  those 
employees  who  have  made  his  success  possible,  and  upon 
whom  he  must  depend  for  continued  prosperity.  He 
increases  their  pay,  takes  off  the  burdens  of  detail,  makes 
them  feel  that  their  good  work  is  appreciated  and  that 
they  are  reserved  for  higher  and  better  positions;  and 


194          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

not  that  they  are  to  be  punished  for  their  contribution  to 
his  success  by  having  additional  and  more  grinding  work 
put  upon  them. 

In  the  reorganized  college  the  good  work  of  the 
teacher  will  have  first  consideration,  and  not  the  wishes 
of  that  percentage  of  the  student  body  who  have  been 
attracted  because  a  professional  coach — with  plenty  of 
money  and  the  faculty  and  college  sentiment  to  aid  him 
— has  been  able  to  turn  out  successful  athletic  teams; 
and  it  will  be  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  the  administra- 
tive department  to  insure  that  this  policy  of  the  college 
is  carried  out. 

The  fact  that  the  modern  college  plan  of  "everything 
for  the  student  and  intercollegiate  athletics,  and  the 
devil  take  the  faculty/'  has  been  found  wanting,  and  not 
conducive  to  fostering  true  scholarliness  or  the  good 
name  of  Alma  Mater,  is  another  reason  why  it  has  be- 
come necessary  to  consider  a  thorough  reorganization 
of  the  college. 

The  third  annual  report  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation 
(p.  75)  says: 

"The  greatest  obstacle  in  the  past  has  been  the  ever- 
present  competition  for  numbers,  which  is  the  great  demor- 
alization in  all  American  education." 

This  is  here  treated  as  a  simple  business  proposition. 
The  waste  of  future  citizen  material  at  this  point  in  our 
college  factory  is  unnecessary  and  irreparable,  and  here 
is  one  of  the  reasons  why  our  colleges  have  not  brought 
forth  more  great  productive  scholars.  One  phase  of 
this  waste  can  be  illustrated.  In  Germany  the  gymna- 
sium carries  a  boy  to  about  the  end  of  our  sophomore 


The  New  Primary  Unit  195 

year,  and  up  to  this  point  his  studies  have  been  dis- 
tinctly what  we  would  call  high-school  work,  under  high- 
school  teachers  and  methods.  When  he  goes  to  the  uni- 
versity he  enters  upon  his  professional  course,  under 
teachers  whose  aims  and  methods  are  entirely  different 
from  those  of  the  gymnasium.  The  German  university 
professors  are  men  who  have  made  great  names  for 
themselves  by  original  work  in  their  own  departments, 
or  else  they  would  not  be  where  they  are;  and  they  have 
probably  won,  also,  civic  and  social  distinction.  In 
other  words,  in  Germany  there  is  the  sharpest  distinc- 
tion between  high-school  and  professional  or  university 
teaching  standards  and  methods,  and  one  who  would  be- 
come a  professor  in  the  university  must  be  a  producer  of 
high  rank. 

This  was  essentially  the  original  idea  of  our  earliest 
colleges.  "There  was  comparatively  little  below  the 
college,  and  almost  nothing  above  it."  Its  teaching 
was  that  of  the  professional  school  and  it  trained  di- 
rectly for  professional  life  as  it  was  then  understood. 
Hence  the  instructors  had  the  honor  of  being  among  the 
chief  divines  and  logicians  in  the  community,  for  theol- 
ogy and  logic  were  the  supreme  professional  training. 
Any  further  vocational  training  was  not  in  a  distinct 
school,  but  in  the  home  of  a  pastor  or  the  office  of  a 
lawyer  or  doctor.  But  after  awhile  our  modern  idea 
of  a  distinct  professional  school  began  to  be  engrafted 
upon  our  colleges,  and  their  courses  had  more  and  more 
a  tendency  to  become  mere  extensions  of  high-school 
courses,  and  their  teachers  and  methods  merely  a  sub- 
limated and  higher  preparation  for  the  professional 


196          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

school.  At  this  point  the  college  professors  began  to  be 
put  at  a  distinct  disadvantage.  They  had  many  of  the 
drawbacks  of  the  high-school  teachers  and  few  of  the 
outside  opportunities  of  the  professional  schools.  More 
and  more  the  tendency  was  to  make  them  drudges  in- 
stead of  producers.  Every  year  we  turn  out  a  fine  crop 
of  prospective  college  instructors  of  great  promise  and 
with  high  ambitions  and  gifts.  They  feel  capable  of 
doing  good  original  work  and  of  bettering  the  methods 
of  the  average  professor  under  whose  instructions  they 
have  sat.  But  thirty  years  before,  that  average  pro- 
fessor had  had  the  same  capability  and  ambitions,  until 
these  were  killed  out  of  him  by  the  poor  administrative 
methods  and  bad  factory  practice  of  our  colleges.  Un- 
less we  thoroughly  reorganize  our  college  practice,  each 
new  crop  of  prospective  college  professors  must  be  be- 
numbed and  stunted  by  the  very  drudgery  that  a  suc- 
cessful start  will  entail.  Furthermore,  the  almost  cer- 
tain extension  of  the  preceptorial  system,  in  varying 
forms,  is  sure  to  be  attended  with  great  danger  that  it 
will  dwarf  the  coming  race  of  pedagogues  unless  this  in- 
sidious danger  is  most  earnestly  studied  and  guarded 
against.  The  same  process  which  has  put  the  college 
professor  between  the  professional  and  the  high-school 
teachers  will  tend  to  create  a  permanent  class  of  pre- 
ceptors and  drudges  below  the  college  professors;  just 
as  in  a  large  bank  few  employees  ever  become  more  than 
poorly  paid  bank  clerks  with  large  responsibility  in 
routine  lines.  We  are  likely  thus  to  put  a  further  pre- 
mium on  our  constant  waste,  through  poor  administra- 
tive methods,  of  high-class  pedagogical  material  which 


L'F. 


The  New  Primary  Unit  197 


is  capable  of  doing  good  original  and  teaching  work  in 
its  chosen  field. 

The  Briggs  Report  says  of  Harvard's  assistant  in- 
structors: 

"As  the  number  of  men  assigned  to  each  assistant  is 
large,  he  can  give  little  time  to  each,  and  that  only  at  long 
intervals,  usually  seeing  each  of  his  men  for  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  at  a  time  about  once  a  month.  ...  As  the  uni- 
versity is  now  organized  these  assistants  are  necessarily 
young  men  and  therefore  without  experience  in  teaching."  1 

The  Carnegie  Foundation  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that,  while  the  teaching  forces  of  Columbia  and  Harvard 
are  practically  alike  in  number,  Columbia  annually  pays 
about  $300,000  more  to  her  instructing  staff  than  does 
Harvard,  and  that  the  difference  chiefly  is  "in  the  sal- 
aries paid  in  the  teaching  grades  below  faculty  rank. 
The  average  instructor  at  Harvard  receives  $753  a  year 
less  than  the  average  instructor  at  Columbia."  2  Such 
a  condition  is  unfair  for  the  student,  but  immeasurably 
more  so  for  the  assistants  who  are  supposedly  picked 
men.  What  inspiration  to  such  men  is  there  in  seeing 
each  of  his  pupils  "  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  at  a  time, 
about  once  a  month?"  Or  what  inspiration  to  the 
pupils,  when  the  instructors  use  their  poorly  paid  posi- 
tions as  a  makeshift  to  enable  them  to  pursue  their  own 
studies? 

It  will  become  clearer,  as  we  proceed,  that  these  are 
strictly  administrative  and  not  pedagogical  questions, 
and  must  be  solved  through  an  up-to-date  college  ad- 

1  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  pp.  176,  402,  403. 
*  Carnegie  Foundation  Bulletin,  No.  Two,  p.  38. 


198  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

ministrative  department  conducted  on  the  best  modern 
business  principles. 

The  inherent  difference  between  the  teaching  methods 
of  college  and  professional  schools,  and  the  chaos  and 
waste  which  have  resulted  from  the  attempt  to  cover 
graduate  and  undergraduate  work  in  the  same  classes 
in  our  so-called  universities,  have  been  very  clearly  set 
forth  in  Flexner's  "The  American  College,"  in  Chapter 
V.  But  the  evils  at  this  point  are  not  pedagogical,  for 
the  teaching  in  itself  is  admittedly  becoming  better  each 
year.  Any  good  manufacturer  would  see  that  these 
questions  were  administrative  rather  than  pedagogical; 
that  is,  whether  the  raw  material  was  being  treated  in 
the  right  way  by  the  proper  machinery.  It  is  not  a 
question  of  whether  one  factory  has  the  proper  facilities 
to  turn  out  car  springs  and  another  the  right  machinery 
to  turn  out  watch  springs;  but  rather  whether,  because 
of  lack  of  proper  administration,  the  watch  spring  ma- 
terial has  been  delivered  to  the  car  factory,  and  the 
watch  factory  is  attempting  to  hammer  out  car  springs. 
It  is  plainly  evident  that,  in  such  a  case,  it  is  the  ad- 
ministration and  not  the  machinery  which  is  at  fault. 

Only  when  we  reorganize  our  college  factories  so  as  to 
make  and  keep  our  instructors — as  our  chief  primary 
units — of  the  highest  grade,  and  in  the  highest  state  of 
efficiency,  and  with  constant  opportunities  and  incen- 
tives for  self-improvement,  and  all  this  in  charge  of  a 
coordinate,  sympathetic  and  earnest  department  look- 
ing for  results,  shall  we  get  anything  like  the  product  of 
which  our  institutions  are  capable.  Then  only  will  it 
be  possible  to  thoroughly  study  college  conditions  and 


The  New  Primary  Unit  199 

methods  so  as  to  determine  exactly  the  true  place  of  the 
college  in  our  system  of  higher  education.  Then  only 
can  we  restore  the  older  conditions  when  the  position  of 
a  college  professor  carried  with  it  a  civic  and  social 
honor  which,  in  part  at  least,  compensated  for  its  hard- 
ships and  manifold  deprivations.  More  and  more  we 
must,  through  our  separate  administrative  department, 
restore  this  feature  to  college  pedagogy.  Thus  the  re- 
organized colleges  can  regain  their  hold  on  the  better 
class  of  young  men  as  teachers,  and  keep  them  to  their 
best  work,  since  this  alone  will  bring  them  the  highest 
honors.  This  phase  of  the  college  problem  is  being 
carefully  studied  by  the  Carnegie  Foundation.  Some  of 
its  conclusions  will  be  found  in  Appendix  No.  IV. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   NATURE    OF    BUSINESS   ADMINISTRATION   AND   AD- 
MINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENTS 

THIS  may  be  well  called  the  age  of  organization,  re- 
organization and  system,  for  the  paramount  questions  in 
all  large  affairs  are  now  those  of  administration  and  or- 
ganization. A  large  but  poorly  organized  factory  or 
mercantile  establishment  is  sure  to  end  in  bankruptcy. 
Our  modern  railroad  and  shipping  companies  are  mar- 
vels of  intricate  and  perfected  administrative  and  execu- 
tive systems.  Administrative  problems  arise  when  the 
number  of  employees  is  greatly  increased,  and,  as  well, 
when  intricate  and  expensive  machinery  is  introduced  to 
take  the  place  of  many  men.  There  are  few  such  prob- 
lems where  5,000  men  are  scattered  in  groups  of  five 
through  a  thousand  shops,  but  the  questions  become 
many  and  difficult  when  these  5,000  workmen  are 
gathered  into  one  establishment  and  under  one  manage- 
ment. In  the  same  manner  an  intricate  machine  han- 
dled by  one  man,  but  doing  the  work  of  100  unskilled 
workmen,  adds  to  the  administrative  difficulties  of  the 
concern.  It  may  not  require  so  many  men  to  work  it, 
but  it  has  a  large  first  cost  upon  which  it  must  earn  in- 
terest, depreciation  and  replacement  charges,  and  hence 
it  must  not  stand  idle;  it  has  a  large  producing  capacity, 


Nature  of  Administrative  Departments        201 

and  hence  must  be  kept  supplied  with  a  larger  amount 
of  raw  material ;  and  its  larger  output  must  be  constantly, 
economically  and  advantageously  disposed  of.  Thus  a 
modern  and  efficient  machine  does  away  with  some  of 
the  lower  forms  of  administrative  problems  arising  in 
connection  with  unskilled  workmen,  but  gives  rise  to  a 
more  difficult  kind  connected  with  skilled  and  high- 
priced  labor  and  intricate  and  costly  machinery. 

So  it  is  with  our  colleges.  Their  problems  increase 
geometrically,  not  only  with  the  number  of  their  students 
and  faculty,  but  also  with  the  number  and  intricacy 
of  their  courses  and  the  higher  grade  of  their  work. 
Within  sixty  years  the  students  of  Columbia  have  in- 
creased about  thirty  fold  and  her  faculty  almost  fifty 
fold.  But  no  one  would  think  of  suggesting  that  her 
educational  and  administrative  problems  had  increased 
merely  thirty  or  fifty  fold.  It  would  be  nearer  the  truth 
to  say  that  there  are  more  than  fifty  new  kinds  of  such 
problems  which  were  undreamed  of  sixty  years  ago;  and 
that  each  of  these  is  fifty  times  more  difficult  than  any  of 
the  earlier  period.  We  must  fully  understand  this  so 
that  we  may  appreciate  that  our  new  college  administra- 
tive department  must  be  under  the  charge  of  adminis- 
trative and  not  pedagogical  experts.  Very  few  of  the 
problems  of  the  quasi  state  and  public  servant  which  we 
discuss  herein  have  any  strict  connection  with  pedagogy, 
pure  and  simple.  They  belong  rather  to  the  student  life, 
or  to  the  financial,  board  of  control,  administrative  or 
executive  departments;  and  pedagogy  should  be  content 
to  let  these  other  departments  handle  their  own  problems 
so  long  as  they  do  so  in  such  a  way  as  to  improve  the  net 


2O2  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

results  of  the  instructional  branch  and  enable  it  to  turn 
out  better  citizen  material. 

More  and  more  every  branch  of  a  modern  business 
tends  to  sharp  cleavage  into  departments  and  bureaus 
and  to  specialization.  Clerks  are  given  certain  branches 
of  work,  and  expected  to  stick  to  those  and  not  to  meddle 
with  any  others.  In  large  affairs  it  is  better — nay,  es- 
sential— that  experts  should  be  put  over  the  many  differ- 
ent departments.  Otherwise  there  would  be  no  system 
and  no  real  progress.  This  has  been  carried  to  an  ex- 
treme in  one  of  our  most  successful  trusts,  wherein  the 
various  branches  of  business  have  been  organized,  not 
into  departments,  but  into  separate  and  important  cor- 
porations, now  aggregating  more  than  100  in  number. 
Not  only  are  the  678  retail  stores  of  one  branch  of 
this  business  conducted  under  one  corporation,  but  this 
latter  hires  its  stores  from  another  subsidiary  company 
which  does  nothing  but  secure  and  handle  leases  upon 
desirable  locations,  and  conduct  a  real  estate  business 
in  that  connection. 

The  affairs  of  the  colleges  are  now  so  large  and  ex- 
tended that  they  must  draw  a  sharp  distinction  between 
their  departments,  and  even  between  the  different  bu- 
reaus in  these  departments;  just  as  already  they  do  be- 
tween the  different  courses  in  their  curriculum.  They 
must  let  the  experts  of  the  financial,  pedagogical,  ad- 
ministrative, executive  and  student  life  departments 
handle  the  affairs  of  their  respective  departments,  and 
hold  them  responsible  for  the  results  therein;  just  as  they 
now  differentiate  between  the  Greek  and  the  Latin 
courses,  or  among  the  various  sciences,  which  were 


Nature  o)  Administrative  Departments        203 

formerly  taught  by  the  same  man.  This  distinct  defi- 
nition of  duties  and  powers,  and  this  placing  of  responsi- 
bility in  connection  therewith,  are  cardinal  principles  in 
good  business  practice,  and  must  be  so  in  the  colleges. 
The  very  fact  that  it  has  not  been  so  shows  the  need  of 
reorganization. 

President  Eliot,  in  his  "University  Administration," 
p.  82,  says: 

"The  faculty  of  arts  and  sciences  in  a  broadly  developed 
university  will  necessarily  be  large,  and  its  individual  mem- 
bers will  probably  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of  only  one 
or  two  out  of  the  numerous  departments  of  instruction  with- 
in the  faculty.  The  mathematicians  may  often  have  little 
sympathy  with,  or  knowledge  of,  the  language  departments, 
and  will  be  closely  affiliated  only  with  the  departments  of 
physics,  chemistry,  mechanics,  and  astronomy.  The  pro- 
fessors of  history  will  probably  know  little,  and  perhaps 
care  little,  about  the  scientific  departments;  but  will  maintain 
rather  close  relations  with  the  departments  of  government 
and  economics.  Distinguished  men  and  admirable  teach- 
ers in  such  a  faculty  may  easily  know  nothing  to  speak  of 
about  more  than  half  of  the  subjects  of  instruction  dealt 
with  by  their  faculty." 

Certainly  if  the  various  members  of  the  college  fac- 
ulty "have  little  sympathy  with  or  knowledge  of"  the 
problems  of  their  fellow- instructors,  far  less  can  they 
sympathize  with,  or  have  knowledge  of,  or  be  fitted  by 
sympathy  or  knowledge  to  solve  the  intricate  adminis- 
trative problems  of  the  huge  college  factory  which  now 
embraces  from  1,000  to  5,000  members,  and  of  which 
President  Eliot  says: 

"The  American  universities  have  grown  in  a  casual,  ag- 
glutinating way,  without  any  definite  plan  or  framework 
to  tie  together  the  different  departments  which  were  success- 


2O4          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

ively  created.  They  have  ordinarily  started  with  the  some- 
what definite  organization  called  a  college,  and  around  this 
college  have  grown  up  an  undergraduate  department  of  ap- 
plied science,  including  agriculture  and  engineering,  and  so- 
called  professional  schools  of  law,  medicine,  dentistry,  phar- 
macy, finance  or  commerce,  and,  in  a  few  cases,  divinity. 
The  standard  of  admission  to  the  professional  schools  has 
usually  been  much  lower  than  the  standard  of  admission  to 
the  college;  and  indeed  in  many  universities  there  have  been 
no  requirements  at  all  for  admission  to  the  professional 
schools;  so  that  anybody  could  enter  them,  with  or  without 
any  preparatory  education.  Their  students  were  therefore 
very  heterogeneous  in  quality,  and  were,  as  a  rule,  looked 
down  upon  by  the  college  students  who  were  candidates 
for  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  Now  a  group  of  de- 
tached, unrelated  schools  is  not  a  university;  and  it  is  for 
the  trustees  of  the  larger  American  institutions  of  the  higher 
education  to  convert  these  groups  of  schools  into  true  uni- 
versities." ' 

But  this  change  in  external  scope  has  been  accom- 
panied by  an  equally  far-reaching  change  in  internal 
methods,  for  President  Eliot  says  further: 

"The  rapidity  and  completeness  with  which  methods  of 
instruction  and  fields  of  instruction  change  from  generation 
to  generation,  and  even  from  decade  to  decade,  is  one  of  the 
most  astonishing  facts  in  the  history  of  education.  Thus 
there  is  not  a  single  subject  within  the  whole  range  of  in- 
struction at  Harvard  University,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
undergraduate  course  to  the  end  of  the  professional  courses, 
which  is  now  taught  in  the  same  way  in  which  it  was  taught 
forty  years  ago,  or  which  offers  the  same  field  of  instruction 
which  it  offered  to  the  student  of  the  last  generation.  All 
the  methods  and  apparatus  of  teaching,  and  the  spirit  or 
temper  of  teacher  and  taught  alike,  have  changed.  Some 
of  these  profound  changes  begin  in  the  faculties;  but  others 
begin  outside  the  university  in  the  working  world,  and  must 
be  discerned,  appreciated,  and  adopted  by  the  faculties; 

1 "  University  Administration,"  p.  39. 


Nature  oj  Administrative  Departments        205 

some  are  university  inventions;  but  many  are  the  conse- 
quences of  social,  industrial,  and  political  changes  in  the 
outside  world.  Every  faculty,  therefore,  has  to  keep  up 
with  the  rapid  march  of  educational  events,  and  for  this 
purpose  it  must  have  frequent  stated  meetings,  and  patient 
discussion  of  new  proposals."  l 

Any  trained  business  man  must  perceive  that  the 
problems  which  have  arisen  from  such  changes  in  our 
850  competing  colleges  and  universities  are  strictly  ad- 
ministrative in  their  nature,  although  relating  to  college 
pedagogy;  and  are  not,  in  any  sense,  pedagogical  prob- 
lems of  an  administrative  nature.  In  our  further  dis- 
cussions we  shall  see  how  terrible  have  been  the  losses 
and  wastes — especially  in  valuable  citizen  material — 
from  our  failure  to  perceive  the  fundamental  difference 
in  content  and  treatment  between  a  solving  by  adminis- 
tration of  questions  of  a  pedagogical  nature  and  the  at- 
tempt to  solve  administrative  questions  by  pedagogical 
methods  which  have  not  even  been  able  to  solve  their 
own  pedagogical  questions. 

From  their  very  nature,  administrative  and  executive 
departments  are  an  added  expense  without  direct  pro- 
ducing power.  That  is,  they  are  directory  and  super- 
visory rather  than  productive,  using  this  word  in  its 
narrow  sense.  Yet  they  are  constantly  multiplied  and 
extended  at  increasing  cost  in  every  well-conducted  bus- 
iness. This  is  one  of  the  penalties  we  pay  for  modern 
machinery  and  skilled  labor.  The  president  of  a  rail- 
road company  does  no  practical  work  in  any  of  the  pro- 
ductive departments.  His  duties  are  purely  executive. 
The  same  is  true  of  substantially  all  the  high-priced  men 

1  "University  Administration,"  p.  119. 


206  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

connected  with  the  corporation.  They  belong  to  the  ad- 
ministrative or  executive  branches  of  the  business,  not 
adding  directly  to  the  income,  but  rather  reducing  it. 
That  is,  they  are  an  additional  expense,  to  the  end  that 
the  net  profits  may  be  larger  because  of  the  greater 
safety,  system  and  science  with  which  the  business  is 
conducted.  They  have  become  necessary  merely  be- 
cause the  increased  numbers  of  those  engaged  in  the 
common  pursuit,  the  great  field  to  be  covered,  the  com- 
petition of  well-organized  rivals,  and  the  use  and  care  of 
modern  and  intricate  machinery  demand  constantly  im- 
proving administrative  and  executive  systems. 

When  the  railroad  consisted  of  a  short  single  track,  on 
which  a  single  mixed  passenger  and  freight  train  ran 
first  in  one  direction  and  then  in  the  other,  two  or  three 
men  could  fill  every  position  in  the  operating,  adminis- 
trative and  executive  departments.  The  separation  and 
multiplication  of  these  departments  and  their  various 
bureaus  are  chiefly  the  results  of  the  growth  of  the  busi- 
ness. Every  foreman  and  superintendent  is  in  one  sense 
an  administrative  officer,  or  an  additional  expense  for 
the  purpose  of  getting  better  or  even  good  work  out  of 
those  who  actually  produce,  although,  for  bookkeeping 
purposes,  his  wages  may  be  charged  with  other  labor  in 
the  operating  expenses. 

The  rule  with  railroad  contractors  is  about  one  fore- 
man to  each  gang  of  twelve  laborers,  and  a  similar  rule 
as  to  the  proportion  of  foremen  or  superintendents,  with 
variance  only  as  to  the  number  supervised,  runs  through 
the  employment  of  labor  in  all  fields.  In  most  large 
manufacturing  concerns  the  cost  of  the  administrative 


Nature  oj  Administrative  Departments        207 

and  executive  forces,  that  is,  those  who  do  not  directly 
produce,  is  upward  of  ten  per  cent  of  the  total  outgo,  in- 
cluding raw  material. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  preceptorial  system  at  Prince- 
ton is  quite  as  much  an  administrative  as  a  pedagogical 
advance.  It  is  an  attempt  to  insure  that  the  good  work 
of  the  higher  professors  shall  not  be  wasted  upon  an  un- 
prepared and  unappreciative  mass  of  students.  The 
preceptors  are  the  college  foremen  insuring  good  results 
in  their  own  limited  divisions. 

In  addition  to  the  executive,  the  usual  strictly  admin- 
istrative agencies  of  an  ordinary  manufacturing  business 
may  be  divided  into  those  which  are  in  their  nature  (a) 
creative,  (b)  directive,  (c)  corrective,  (d)  recording,  (e) 
investigating,  and  (/)  those  which  create  trade  not  prod- 
ucts. These  same  administrative  functions  in  modified 
forms  are  applicable  in  our  colleges,  and  should  be  dif- 
ferentiated and  put  in  force  therein. 

(a)  The  creative  agencies  are  those  which  prepare  and 
lay  out  work  for  the  operating  or  producing  forces;  for 
example,  those  which  design,  plan  or  draft  the  particular 
form  or  content  of  the  thing  to  be  produced,  so  that  it 
may  accomplish  the  end  in  view  or  satisfy  the  demands 
of  the  customer  or  trade. 

(b)  The  directive  forces  are  those  which  superintend 
the  actual  turning  out  of  the  product  or  manufactured 
articles;  for  example,  the  superintendent,  the  master 
mechanic  or  master  car  builder,  and  so  on  down  through 
all  those  who  supervise  but  do  not  themselves  perform 
labor.     In  the  earlier  days  of  small  things  the  master 
labored  beside  his  journeymen  or  apprentices,  doing  the 


208          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

finest  work  himself;  but  to-day  we  find  foremen  and  as- 
sistant foremen;  and  over  these,  superintendents  and  as- 
sistants; and  above  these,  managers  and  their  deputies; 
and  so  on  up  through  the  various  administrative  and  ex- 
ecutive forces  to  the  president. 

(c)  The  corrective  agencies  are  those  which  fix  stand- 
ards of  good  work  or  good  results  for  the  other  departr 
ments  and  then  enforce  compliance  with  these  standards ; 
as,  for  instance,  the  inspectors,  the  credit  and  auditing 
bureaus,  etc. 

(d)  The  recording  forces  are  the  bookkeepers  and 
others  who  keep  the  records  of  the  establishment,  its 
credits  and  debits,  its  purchases,  sales,  etc. 

(e)  The  investigators  are  those  who,  in  the  light  of 
past  experience,  are  looking  for  new  and  improved 
methods,  machinery,  products  and  outlets,  that  there 
may  not  be  stagnation,  but  rather  increased  growth, 
power  and  output  to  meet  the  constantly  changing  con- 
ditions of  the  plant  itself  and  of  its  customers  and  com- 
petitors.    Such  also  is  the  dead  work  in  a  mine,  to  dis- 
cover and  develop  in  advance  new  workings  which  shall 
be  ready  to  continue  the  output  when  the  older  parts  of 
the  mine  are  worked  out.     But  this  dead  work  and  in- 
vestigation are  carried  on  out  of  the  current  receipts  of 
the  producing  portion  of  the  concern  and  so  are  an 
added  expense,  and  to  that  extent  reduce  current  divi- 
dends. 

(/)  Those  which  get  trade  to  keep  the  producing  part 
of  the  plant  in  operation.  Such  are  the  advertising  and 
the  salesmen  with  their  traveling  and  other  expenses. 

Substantially  all  of  these  administrative  bureaus  exist 


Nature  o]  Administrative  Departments        209 

in  any  extensive  producing  business.  As  it  grows,  these 
divisions  are  further  developed,  differentiated  and  sys- 
tematized, until  at  last  they  become  almost  or  quite 
separate  businesses  by  themselves — yet  are  all  a  finan- 
cial necessity,  but  a  financial  drag  upon  the  forces  which 
actually  and  manually  turn  out  the  material  produced 
by  the  concern,  and  which  are  the  chief  forces  in  every 
small  or  primitive  business.  Their  nature  is  the  same 
in  the  main,  and  the  rules  which  govern  them  are  simi- 
lar, whatever  may  be  the  business  or  calling  in  which 
they  are  to  apply.  The  administrative  experts  may 
even  be  the  veriest  tyros  in  the  technical  parts  of  the 
work,  since  the  necessary  technical  knowledge  can  be 
supplied  by  the  practical  workers  and  experts. 

How  completely  general  administration  is  an  expense 
and  not  a  producing  agency  is  illustrated  by  a  statement 
of  the  heads  under  which  it  is  carried.  In  the  books  of 
one  large  trust,  separate  accounts  of  administration  and 
executive  expenses  are  kept  under  the  following  head- 
ings: 

President  Bureau  of  Statistics      Construction  and  Main- 
Vice  President  Bureau  of  Tests  tenance 
Treasurer  General  Office  Transportation 
Secretary  Law  Woodlands 
General  Manager         Purchasing  Insurance  and  Taxes 
Auditing  Manufacturing  Exports 
Accounting  Sales 

In  other  words,  there  are  nineteen  separate  adminis- 
trative or  executive  departments  or  bureaus  superim- 
posed upon  the  productive  forces,  and  necessary  to  get 
good  results  out  of  the  producers  of  the  business.  As 
the  college  is  distinctively  a  factory,  it  requires  some- 


2io  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

thing  of  this  same  separate  executive  and  administra- 
tive organization  to  get  satisfactory  results  out  of  the 
raw  material  which  is  turned  over  to  the  care  of  the  in- 
structors, who  are  the  college  workers  and  producers. 

But  as  these  administrative  departments  have  grown 
in  size,  the  objects  which  they  originally  had  in  view 
have  increased  in  scope,  importance  and  results,  to  cor- 
respond with  the  added  cost.  The  wise  business  man 
does  not  hesitate  to  increase  his  administrative  ex- 
penses if  thereby  he  can  improve  other  conditions. 

In  the  colleges  the  general  subject  may  be  pedagogi- 
cal, but  the  administrative  system,  to  be  successful  and 
complete,  must  be  essentially  like  and  modeled  after 
those  applied  in  ordinary  industries  and  callings,  and  be 
run  upon  the  same  general  principles.  It  is  a  question 
of  numbers,  and  size,  and  intricacy,  and  not  of  peda- 
gogy. This  and  the  need  of  a  separate  administrative 
department  are  well  illustrated  by  the  Briggs  Report, 
wherein  the  committee  of  the  faculty  of  Harvard  College 
upon  improving  instruction  therein  frankly  confessed 
themselves  unable  to  cope  successfully  even  with  the  ad- 
ministrative problems  directly  connected  with  the  peda- 
gogy of  the  college.  The  whole  investigation  was  a 
brave  attempt  upon  the  part  of  the  faculty  to  do  another's 
work.  The  very  words  with  which  they  open  their  re- 
port should  have  convinced  them  that  their  investigation 
was  extrapedagogical : 

"Early  in  the  deliberations  of  the  committee  it  became 
clear  that  neither  the  faculty  nor  any  member  of  the  faculty 
possessed  accurate  and  detailed  knowledge  of  the  methods 
and  the  efficiency  of  instruction  in  all  the  different  courses, 


Nature  of  Administrative  Departments        211 

and  that  the  committee,  if  it  would  speak  intelligently,  must 
get  such  knowledge." 

And  so  this  committee  labored  for  two  years  in 
gathering  and  collating  the  information  and  statistics 
which  the  administrative  department  of  a  modern  fac- 
tory would  have  had  in  its  records  in  a  much  more  satis- 
factory form,  and  which  it  could  supply  to  the  president 
upon  a  few  days'  notice,  and  by  the  use  of  the  ordinary 
clerical  force,  and  covering  a  series  of  years.  The  in- 
formation thus  obtained  applied  to  only  one  institution 
during  a  single  year,  and  hence  was  valueless  for  another 
institution,  or  for  Harvard  a  few  years  later.  It  was  not, 
as  in  the  case  of  a  business  office,  on  tap,  kept  up  to  date, 
constantly  growing  broader  and  broader,  and  made 
more  available  every  year  for  the  use  of  every  one  con- 
nected with  the  establishment.  The  Briggs  investiga- 
tion was  indeed  a  fearless  investigation  along  college 
methods.  But  from  the  point  of  modern  administrative 
methods  it  was  crude  and  unscientific  and  ought  to  have 
been  unnecessary.  It  was  as  far  behind  business  prac 
tice  as  it  was  ahead  of  college  practice. 

As  our  college  finances  are  conducted  by  financial,  not 
pedagogical,  experts,  and  our  pedagogical  department 
by  masters  of  pedagogy,  so  our  college  administration 
should  be  run  by  administrative,  and  not  pedagogical, 
experts.  Hence  in  our  college  reorganization  we  shall 
differentiate  as  sharply  between  pedagogy,  pure  and 
simple,  and  administration  and  the  executive,  as  we 
now  do  between  finances  and  the  pedagogy  which  is 
clogged  and  fettered  by  unnecessary  and  misunderstood 
administrative  problems  based  on  high-school  and  col- 


212  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

onial  college  conditions.  A  few  samples  will  show  how 
marked  is  this  sharp  distinction  and  cleavage  between 
the  administrative  and  all  other  departments  in  modern 
business  affairs  of  importance. 

In  a  mercantile  house  the  rights  and  duties  of  the 
salesman  and  the  credit  man  are  clearly  distinguished. 
No  matter  what  orders  for  goods  may  be  obtained,  they 
must  be  approved  by  the  credit  man. 

In  a  factory  the  cost  department  is  apart  from  and 
regulates  the  manufacturing,  and  determines  what  profit 
is  made  upon  each  product,  and  charges  to  each  its  pro- 
portion of  the  fixed  and  other  general  expenses. 

In  an  insurance  company,  the  agents  may  bring  in 
business  and  the  medical  department  may  approve  the 
risks,  but  the  actuary  must  determine  the  basis  and  plan 
on  which  the  company  can  safely  write  its  policies  and 
accumulate  its  reserve. 

Thus,  in  every  modern  business  or  industry  of  impor- 
tance, there  are  dominant  administrative  departments 
which  do  not  produce  business,  but  regulate  it  and  make 
it  safe  and  profitable  in  the  end ;  which  do  not  in  them- 
selves directly  increase  the  assets  of  the  concern,  and 
whose  cost  is  each  year  written  off  to  profit  and  loss. 
Yet  this  cost  is  justified  by  the  improved  net  results  of 
the  whole  establishment. 

So  in  the  reorganized  college  the  administration  will 
not  be  productive  like  the  finances  and  pedagogy,  but 
regulative  like  the  credit  man,  the  cost  accountant,  the 
actuary  and  the  other  administrative  departments — un- 
der whatever  name  or  form — which  in  other  large  affairs 
bring  order  out  of  chaos  and  insure  profitable  results, 


Nature  oj  Administrative  Departments        213 

while  conserving  the  good  name  of  the  whole;  but  all 
adapted  to  the  conditions  of  that  particular  institution, 
and  with  novel  improvements  to  meet  novel  exigencies. 

A  good  administrative  department  systematizes  and 
lightens  the  labors  of  everyone  connected  with  it,  and 
thus  gets  better  results.  In  the  New  York  offices  of  the 
great  trusts  the  clerks  are  promptly  dismissed  at  five 
o'clock  each  afternoon  with  as  much  regularity  as  the 
members  of  a  trades  union;  and  at  its  eighteen-story 
building,  No.  26  Broadway,  New  York  City,  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company  emphasizes  this  rule  by  turning  off 
its  electric  lights  at  5  P.M.  and  stopping  all  elevator  ser- 
vice at  6  P.M.  After  these  hours  everyone  must  use  gas 
and  tramp  up  and  down  stairs.  Much  unnecessary  la- 
bor and  waste  of  time  of  all  connected  with  the  college 
could  be  done  away  with  by  introducing  some  much- 
needed  reforms  through  a  separate  administrative  de- 
partment. Much  of  the  college  work  could  be  done  in ) 
one  half  the  time  now  required  if  the  colleges  could  in- 
troduce some  of  the  system  which  their  undergraduates 
will  find  pervading  every  department  of  life  as  soon  as 
they  leave  Alma  Mater's  doors. 

We  must  now  further  examine  in  detail  some  of  the 
ordinary  administrative  bureaus,  to  ascertain  if  they 
cannot  and  must  not  be  adapted  to  college  conditions 
and  used  to  improve  college  methods  and  results,  if  our 
reorganization  is  to  be  on  anything  like  as  high  a  plane 
as  prevails  in  our  modern  corporations. 

Possibly  we  shall  approach  this  examination  more 
open-mindedly  if  we  know  that  there  is  one  well-authen- 
ticated case  (and  undoubtedly  many  more)  where  busi- 


214          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

ness  methods  have  been  deliberately  introduced  into  the 
college  under  the  direction  of  a  trained  business  admin- 
istrative expert,  and  that  the  pedagogical  effects  thereof 
have  been  eminently  satisfactory.  The  following  is  an 
extract  from  a  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  Columbia 
University : 

"As  a  result  of  one  year's  vigorous  business  administra- 
tion of  the  dean's  office  in  the  Schools  of  Mines,  Engineering 
and  Chemistry  of  Columbia  University,  the  number  of 
course  conditions  per  student  was  reduced  forty-three  per 
cent,  the  number  of  entrance  conditions  carried  by  students 
being  reduced  sixty-two  per  cent  in  the  same  time.  Put  in 
another  way,  the  ratio  of  conditions  carried  by  first,  second 
and  third  year  men  last  year,  to  those  carried  by  second, 
third,  and  fourth  year  men,  this  year  (i.  e.,  the  same  students 
one  year  later)  was  seven  to  one." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

BOOKKEEPING  AND  ACCOUNTING  IN  THE  REORGANIZED 
COLLEGE 

WE  cannot  understand  modern  business  administra- 
tion unless  we  see  how,  from  comparatively  simple  be- 
ginnings, it  has  developed  and  built  up  intricate  and 
indispensable  bureaus  and  systems  with  wide  uses  and 
beneficent  results.  This  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
growth  of  the  science  of  modern  accounting. 

Until  comparatively  recent  years  bookkeeping  was 
merely  the  most  elementary  form  of  preserving  a  record 
of  the  simplest  financial  dealings,  that  is,  of  the  debits 
and  credits.  A  crude  single-entry  ledger  and  daybook 
sufficed  for  most  concerns.  But  as  the  transactions  in- 
creased in  variety,  complexity  and  amount,  bookkeeping 
errors  also  increased  and  required  some  check ;  and  ac- 
cordingly the  double-entry  system  with  its  trial  balance 
was  introduced,  with  the  sole  object,  at  first,  of  detecting 
errors  in  entering  and  posting.  As  late  as  thirty  years 
ago  this  new  system  was  often  strenuously  opposed  as 
not  yielding  results  which  could  pay  for  the  additional 
time,  expense  and  skill  which  it  required. 

But  soon  modern  exigencies  began  to  demand,  not 
merely  accuracy  in  entering  and  posting,  or  knowledge 
of  how  much  the  concern  owed  or  was  owed,  and  to  and 
from  whom,  but  rather  what  it  was  doing  in  its  own 

215 


216          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

various  branches  and  how  much  it  was  making  or  losing 
in  each.  In  other  words,  the  main  thing  became,  not 
its  debit  and  credit  relation  to  others,  but  what  the  busi- 
ness itself  was  costing  and  earning  in  each  department 
and  item.  That  is,  the  prime  object  grew  to  be  an  an- 
alysis, to  the  finest  detail,  of  the  business  itself  and  of  its 
own  shortcomings  and  successes. 

In  this  emergency  it  was  found  that  the  new-fangled 
and  much-opposed  double-entry  bookkeeping  furnished 
an  instrument,  ready  to  hand,  which  could  be  easily  de- 
veloped to  meet  the  additional  and  changed  require- 
ments. Thus  this  method,  which  was  devised  merely 
as  a  check  upon  the  accuracy  of  the  bookkeeper's  work, 
has  become  the  foundation  of  a  most  intricate  and  deli- 
cate internal  analysis  and  system,  comprehending  book- 
keeping, auditing,  cost-accounting,  and  the  collection  of 
statistics  which  serve  both  as  a  diagnosis  and  prognosis 
of  the  business.  Without  it,  and  the  improvements 
which  have  grown  out  of  it,  true  success  in  the  tangle  of 
modern  business  conditions  would  be  impossible  and 
bankruptcy  would  be  inevitable;  for  modern  auditing 
and  accounting  in  all  their  forms  are  directly  based  upon 
double-entry  bookkeeping.  But,  again,  all  this  implies 
additional  administrative  detail  and  expense. 

Our  colleges  have  not  gotten  beyond  the  single-entry 
stage,  nor  can  we  expect  them  to  rise  to  anything  in  ad- 
ministrative methods  corresponding  to  modern  account- 
ing and  auditing,  so  long  as  they  imagine  that  they  can 
meet  the  intricacies  of  their  modern  problems  by  cling- 
ing to  colonial  and  pedagogical  single-entry  methods. 

I  am  not  now  speaking  of  the  college  financial  de- 


Bookkeeping  and  Accounting  217 

partment,  because,  as  already  shown,  its  bookkeeping 
and  accounting  problems  are  so  simple  that  there  is 
really  no  excuse  for  their  not  being  kept  in  a  perfectly 
satisfactory  form.  I  am  referring  rather  to  the  failure 
of  the  colleges  to  develop  any  truly  scientific  and  com- 
prehensive system  for  finding  out  the  facts,  and  for  an- 
ticipating and  meeting  the  problems  which  have  been 
arising  daily  in  connection  with  the  expansion  of  the 
college,  and  its  adoption  of  university  methods  if  not 
of  university  form,  and  the  other  fundamental  changes 
which  we  have  had  occasion  to  discuss  herein,  and  which 
were  so  clearly  indicated  in  the  extracts  from  President 
Eliot's  latest  book,  given  on  pages  203  and  204.  One 
man  who  is  almost  more  closely  related  than  anyone 
else  to  college  affairs,  and  especially  to  religious  educa- 
tion, puts  it  in  this  way: 

"  It  seems  to  be  the  impression  that  as  soon  as  you  get  into 
the  atmosphere  of  college  education,  and  especially  of  edu- 
cation under  the  auspices  of  religion,  you  have  no  right  to 
look  for  facts." 

This  is  a  pretty  broad  statement,  but  it  comes  from 
one  who  has  had  the  very  best  opportunities  to  judge  of 
conditions.  Possibly  the  nature  of  the  rather  technical 
change  in  the  business  bookkeeping  system,  and  the 
difference  between  business  and  college  ideals,  can  be 
made  clearer  in  another  way.  Under  the  crude  single- 
entry  system  the  proprietor's  only  unit  was  the  external 
debits  and  credits  of  the  business,  expressed  in  dollars 
and  cents,  and  this  was  quite  sufficient  for  a  small  busi- 
ness conducted  under  simple  and  primitive  conditions. 
But  as  the  business  expanded,  it  became  necessary,  in 


218  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

order  to  accomplish  the  same  results,  to  provide  new 
units  by  which  to  measure  results  and  meet  competition 
— units  of  time  and  men  and  machines,  of  profit  and 
loss  in  each  department,  of  detailed  expenses  and  costs, 
and  all  the  other  units  which  make  up  the  objects  and 
ends  of  a  modern  accounting  and  auditing  system.  But 
our  colleges  are  too  much  inclined  to  stick  to  the  most 
paltry  feature  of  their  original  unit  of  value  and  ac- 
counting. They  are  content  to  magnify  the  marking 
system  as  a  substitute  for  the  former  intimate  personal 
knowledge  of  the  teacher  and  taught,  brought  about  by 
daily  contact  for  four  years  in  a  very  small  college.  They 
forget  that  a  student  was  not  told  of  his  marks  unless  he 
made  special  inquiry  after  graduation,  and  that  marks 
were  kept  merely  to  determine  rank  and  honors  upon 
the  commencement  stage.1 

We  must  find  new  units  of  value  in  our  reorganized 
colleges;  units  based  upon  a  broad  training  for  citizen- 
ship; units  calculated  to  supply  the  lack  of  the  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  pupil's  personal  characteristics 
and  educational  needs  which  gave  the  earlier  professor 
such  an  ability  to  train  each  individual  student  as  he 
needed  to  be  trained.  Huge  numbers  of  students  and 
teachers,  and  changed  social  and  other  conditions  make 
impossible  the  former  close  personal  acquaintance  of  all 
within  the  college  walls.  The  same  results  must  now  be 
obtained  in  other  ways  and  through  new  units,  as  in 
business ;  and  these  new  units  of  value,  and  the  methods 
of  properly  applying  them,  must  be  one  of  the  functions 
of  a  bureau  of  the  new  administrative  department;  and, 

1  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  pp.  57,  186. 


Bookkeeping  and  Accounting  219 

so  far  as  possible,  each  new  unit  must  have  a  like  value 
in  every  institution. 

We  must  have  an  administrative  system  broad  enough 
to  cover  all  of  the  diversities  of  our  colleges,  and  yet  cap- 
able of  being  applied  to  the  ordinary  problems  of  any 
particular  institution.  This  diversity  has  an  important 
bearing  on  this  present  phase  of  our  subject,  because  it 
emphasizes  the  great  differences  which  exist  in  the  pro- 
fessed or  actual  aims  of  our  various  educators  and  in- 
stitutions, and  of  their  systems  of  study  and  training; 
which  differences  are  enfeebling  and  disturbing  in  the 
highest  degree,  and  must  continue  to  be  so  until  some 
modern  form  of  accounting  and  auditing,  applicable  to 
college  conditions,  introduces  some  uniformity  and  new 
units  of  value  into  their  records  and  methods.  We  must 
agree  as  to  the  objects  for  which  we  are  to  work  after 
our  reorganization,  or  else  that  reorganization  will  be  in- 
complete because  not  directed  to  any  well-defined  goal 
agreed  upon  by  institutions  of  the  same  class  and  with 
similar  aims.  This  can  be  accomplished  only  by  devis- 
ing and  extensively  applying  something  like  a  modern 
double-entry  auditing  and  accounting  system  to  the  ped- 
agogical, that  is,  to  the  producing  part  of  our  colleges. 
The  evident  differences  between  what  the  college  does 
stand  for  and  what  it  should  stand  for  indicates  to  the 
unprejudiced  observer  from  without  that  there  are  not 
sufficient  common  data,  and  hence  no  common  point 
from  which  to  argue.  These  must  be  obtained  through 
bureaus  of  the  administrative  departments  of  many  col- 
leges working  together  upon  an  agreed  system. 

This  may  seem  technical  to  many  readers,  but  it  will 


220          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

appeal  to  business  men,  public  accountants,  corporation 
lawyers  and  reorganizes;  and  a  very  little  and  first-hand 
investigation  will  convince  them  that  the  charges  are 
well  founded,  and  that  the  colleges  are  still  in  their 
single-entry  stage  in  administration.  They  still  have, 
too  often,  a  crude  system  for  keeping  the  debits  and 
credits  which  entitle  a  man  to  a  sixty  or  seventy  per 
cent  diploma,  but  they  have  no  way  of  analyzing,  day 
by  day  or  even  term  by  term,  the  real  results,  in  the 
pedagogical  and  student  life  departments,  of  each 
branch  and  subdivision  of  the  college  work. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  college  education  consists  of  the 
final  molding  which  the  student  citizen  gets  in  each  of 
the  three  planes  of  his  college  life.  The  college  book- 
keeping system  is  largely  based  upon  the  idea  that  that 
education  consists  of  getting  a  diploma — by  hook  or  by 
crook.  When  a  college  education  means  to  us  in  name 
what  it  does  in  fact  to  the  individual,  we  shall  see  that 
the  college  must  have  some  way  of  internal  analyzation 
such  as  every  good  business  concern  possesses  and  uses. 
We  will  understand,  as  we  proceed,  how  indispensable 
this  analysis  has  become  in  modern  business  and  manu- 
facturing, and  how  invaluable  and  indispensable  it  will 
seem  to  all  concerned  after  it  shall  have  had  a  fair  trial 
in  the  college. 

One  of  our  largest  universities,  for  example,  has  not 
been  able  to  put  into  practice  a  modern  method  of  de- 
termining even  the  exact  financial  cost  of  its  several  de- 
partments. These  hand  in  estimates  upon  which  the 
annual  budget  is  based.  But  at  the  end  of  the  year  the 
surpluses  and  deficits  of  the  several  departments  are 


Bookkeeping  and  Accounting  221 

arranged  by  trading  postage  stamps  and  supplies.  There 
is  no  question  of  dishonesty  involved,  but  the  institu- 
tion's bookkeeping  must  be  essentially  misleading  and 
valueless. 

If  this  be  true  of  so  simple  a  matter  as  its  cash  account, 
it  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that  a  recent  careful  exami- 
nation of  its  pedagogical  account  disclosed  many  courses 
in  the  catalogue  which  had  not  been  taken  by  a  single 
student  for  some  years.  If  the  institution  can  afford  it, 
it  may  be  quite  necessary  that  there  shall  be  many  grad- 
uate courses  which  are  taken  by  but  few  students.  The 
point  here  is  that  the  college  auditing  department  should 
be  able  to  know  and  show  the  relative  value,  instruc- 
tionally,  of  every  part  of  its  working  force  and  machin- 
ery, and  that,  until  this  is  as  thoroughly  so  in  the  college 
as  the  great  business  trust,  the  college  is  at  a  marked  dis- 
advantage in  determining  how  it  can  most  wisely  apply 
its  financial,  pedagogical  and  other  resources  in  meeting 
its  obligations  as  a  public  servant. 

After  a  pretty  careful  examination  of  college  methods, 
and  from  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  growth  of  ac- 
counting and  business  administration  for  thirty  years,  I 
am  sure  that,  if  our  colleges  would  formulate  and  apply 
new  units  of  value  and  up-to-date  administrative  and 
accounting  methods,  they  would  quadruple  in  ten  years 
their  net  results  in  wholesome  training  for  citizenship, 
without  a  dollar's  increase  in  endowment,  and  to  the 
lasting  satisfaction  and  gain  of  all  concerned,  and  at  a 
relatively  great  saving  in  cost. 

Certainly  an  educational  institution,  with  millions  of 
capital,  ought  to  have  as  modern  an  accounting  system 


222  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

of  time,  money,  material,  men  and  net  results,  as  thou- 
sands of  corporations  with  one  hundredth  of  its  capital. 
The  whole  college  economy  would  be  upset  if  the  presi- 
dent should  call  for  a  tithe  of  the  detailed  information 
which  the  auditing  and  accounting  bureaus  of  a  great 
trust  furnish  daily  as  a  matter  of  course.  But  this 
would  be  just  as  true  of  the  trust  if  its  workmen  were 
asked  for  this  information.  It  is  the  latters'  duty  to 
work  and  produce,  and  let  the  administrative  depart- 
ment gather  its  information  and  facts  by  its  own  methods. 
So  in  our  reorganized  college  it  will  be  a  bureau  of  its 
new  administrative  department  which  will  do  the  ac- 
counting work,  and  the  instructors  will  give  their  time 
to  teaching  and  to  improving  their  own  departments. 
Some  of  the  marked  and  epoch-making  improvements, 
which  will  follow  from  the  adoption  in  our  reorganized 
colleges  of  something  approximating  to  modern  ac- 
counting, will  become  apparent  as  we  proceed. 


CHAPTER  XVin 

THE   USE   OF  BLANK   FORMS   IN  THE   REORGANIZED 
COLLEGE 

THE  only  great  profession  or  business  in  our  country, 
dealing  with  large  numbers  of  men  and  having  wide 
competition,  which  has  failed  to  elaborate  and  adopt  a 
comprehensive  set  of  blank  forms,  is  the  college — which, 
nevertheless,  is  presumed  to  be  intelligently  training  our 
future  problem  solvers  and  citizens.  This  failure  is  em- 
phasized because  it  indicates  how  little  college  pedagogy 
understands  or,  under  its  present  administrative  ideals, 
can  understand  its  own  internal  problems  or  the  modern 
methods  and  tools  available  to  help  it  in  solving  those 
problems;  and  hence  how  little  probability  there  is  that, 
of  its  own  initiative,  it  can  hope  to  work  out  of  its  diffi- 
culties, or  to  fit  its  students  to  intelligently  use  forms  and 
blanks  in  their  own  future  work.  Yet  the  use  of  forms, 
blanks  and  precedents  is  an  important  educational  fea- 
ture which  must  be  learned  at  some  future  time  in  the 
students*  training. 

Definite  forms  or  blanks  serve  several  vital  uses  in 
modern  business  and  affairs: 

(1)  To  obtain  and  preserve  exactness  and  the  best 
precedents,  and  thus  to  save  time,  money  and  mental 
wear,  as  in  law  forms,  insurance  policies,  etc. 

(2)  To  systematize  details,  increase  administrative 

223 


224          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

effectiveness  and  decrease  administrative  expense,  and 
thus,  incidentally,  to  make  it  possible  for  experts  in  any 
line  to  take  up  their  work  in  any  place;  as,  for  example, 
bookkeeping  and  auditing  systems.  Forms  and  blanks 
also  exactly  define  the  work  to  be  done  and  the  method 
of  doing  it,  iind  promote  honesty  in  handling  the  time 
and  property  of  other  people. 

(3)  To  analyze  intricate  affairs  so  as  to  enable  us  (a) 
to  study  them  in  their  slightest  detail ;  (b)  to  know  every 
day  what  a  vast  establishment  is  doing;  (c)  to  contrast 
easily  and  surely  present  conditions  with  those  of  the 
past;  (d)  to  detect  errors  before  they  have  become  serious 
or  chronic;  (e)  to  know  precisely  what  each  department 
or  product  costs,  and  where  a  profit  or  loss  is  being  made; 
and  hence  (/)  to  collect  statistics  which  will  furnish  us  a 
compass  by  which  to  steer  our  future  course.  Such 
modern  analyzations  are  seen  in  cost  systems,  railroad 
accounting  methods,  etc.  Let  us  examine  these  three 
classes  more  carefully  and  in  detail. 

(i)  The  earliest  instances  of  forms  as  precedents  are 
found  in  the  law.  The  ancient  writs  and  forms  date 
back  many  centuries  and  serve  as  examples  of  the  con- 
scientious endeavor  of  the  law,  first,  to  exactly  define  and 
then  to  preserve  our  legal  rights  and  remedies.  No  law- 
yer can  imagine  what  would  be  the  present  legal  uncer- 
tainty if  the  best  minds  upon  the  bench  and  at  the  bar 
and  in  the  legislature  had  not  been  constantly  exercised 
to  prepare,  preserve  and  improve  legal  forms  and  prec- 
edents, or  if  each  state's  attorney  or  court  clerk  or  other 
public  official  was  not  bound  down,  yet  immensely 
helped,  by  rigid  forms  and  precedents.  What  would 


The  Use  oj  Blank  Forms  225 

courts  of  law  do  if,  instead  of  using  and  passing  upon 
the  standardized  and  recognized  forms  and  precedents 
in  common  use,  they  were  constantly  called  upon  to 
construe  and  sign  higgledy-piggledy  forms  to  be  devised 
upon  each  occasion  by  each  lawyer?  Or  what  would  a 
life  insurance  expert  say  if  each  agent,  skilled  or  un- 
skilled, might  send  in  an  application  in  a  form  to  be 
evolved  in  each  case,  and  if  each  medical  examiner 
wrote  out  his  own  varying  medical  report,  and  if  the 
clerks  in  the  home  office  drew  each  new  policy  in  the 
form  which  occurred  to  them  at  the  moment?  If,  for 
example,  there  were  no  recognized  forms  and  standards 
of  insurance  policies,  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  the 
writing  of  these  intricate  contracts  done  under  the 
charge  of  a  skilled  lawyer,  instead  of  having  the  written 
blanks  filled  in  by  an  intelligent  clerk.  Yet  after  270 
years  of  college  development  in  this  country,  such  is 
about  the  stage  at  which  we  have  arrived  as  to  forms 
and  precedents — with  the  exception  that,  in  intercol- 
legiate athletics,  our  alumni  athletic  committees  have 
worked  out  a  rigid  set  of  precedents  and  rules  in  football 
and  other  sports;  and  that,  in  their  baseball  and  other 
score  cards  and  records,  the  students  may  measure  their 
performances  by  standards  which  put  upon  each  play  a 
value  recognized  throughout  the  country,  and  make  a 
college  record  as  good  in  California  as  in  New  England! 

This  is  merely  an  application,  by  expert  business  ad- 
ministrators, of  business  principles  to  what  many  deem 
the  lowest  plane  of  the  college  life.  Its  undue  promi- 
nence is  almost  wholly  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  only 
department  where  business  principles,  upon  essentially 


226  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

the  same  system  and  in  essentially  the  same  detail,  have 
been  applied  at  the  same  time  in  practically  every  college 
in  the  country.  This  overwhelming  success  of  business 
administration,  in  the  only  department  of  the  college 
where  it  has  been  cooperatively,  wisely  and  systemati- 
cally standardized  and  applied,  ought  to  make  the  -col- 
lege authorities  pause — or,  as  their  students  would  say, 
sit  up  and  take  notice.  The  phrase  fits  the  case  ex- 
actly. If  strict  business  administrative  methods,  cooper- 
atively applied  by  outside  experts,  have  upset  the  college 
economy  and  unduly  exalted  intercollegiate  athletics  at 
the  expense  of  the  pedagogical  department,  the  college 
equilibrium  can  be  restored  only  when  it  puts  the  same 
successful  business  methods,  under  competent  experts, 
into  force  in  all  parts  of  the  college. 

The  same  rules  as  to  waste,  loss  of  time  and  want  of 
exactness  apply  in  the  college  as  in  any  other  great  ag- 
gregation of  men  and  material  resources  working  toward 
a  common  end.  The  college  must  realize  this,  and 
elaborate  and  use  this  great  agency  of  forms  and  prec- 
edents, or  else  it  must  continue  to  waste  its  own  time, 
money  and  efficiency,  and  those  of  its  teachers,  officers 
and  students. 

(2)  The  reorganized  college  administration  will  thor- 
oughly appreciate  that  standardized  and  scientific  meth- 
ods and  precedents  are  not  clogs  and  frills  which  ob- 
struct, but  rather  scientific  working  tools  which  increase 
administrative  and  executive,  and  hence  productive,  ef- 
fectiveness, and  decrease  the  friction,  expense  and  loss 
of  time  which  are  otherwise  inevitable  in  large  affairs; 
and  that  they  tend  to  educate  a  corps  of  trained  admin- 


The  Use  of  Blank  Forms  227 

istrative  experts  available,  like  trained  pedagogues,  for  in- 
stant use  in  any  institution.  But  to-day,  after  270  years 
of  experience  or  lack  of  experience,  there  are  no  such 
comprehensive  and  standardized  college  administrative 
systems,  like  the  bookkeeping,  accounting  and  auditing 
systems  of  the  business  world,  and  no  administrative  ex- 
perts fitted  to  advise,  introduce  or  conduct  such  systems 
in  colleges.  Our  institutions,  for  many  years,  must  seek 
help  and  guidance  in  this  respect  from  the  experts  of  the 
outside  world.  The  colleges  must  bend  their  united 
energies  until  their  administration  and  executive  are  not 
one  whit  behind  their  machinery — that  is,  their  peda- 
gogy— but  up  to  date,  so  that  their  chief  in  command 
can  rely  upon  the  information  furnished  him,  as  both 
complete  and  accurate;  and,  also,  so  that  honest  and 
efficient  work  may  be  done  in  all  parts  of  the  college. 

(3)  This  is  not  the  time  or  place  to  tell  what  modern 
cost  and  accounting  systems  have  done  for  our  business 
concerns,  nor  to  set  forth  the  place  which  they  have  oc- 
cupied in  modern  reorganizations.  A  very  few  exam- 
ples will  serve  to  show  what  these  great  instruments 
might  do  in  a  properly  reorganized  college. 

The  accounting  system  of  a  railroad  must  audit  and 
safeguard  the  company's  cash  and  interests  in  the  hands 
of  thousands  of  agents  and  employees  scattered,  often 
singly,  over  an  immense  area.  Yet  it  must  also  be  able 
to  tell  what  each  link  and  branch  of  the  road  is  doing;  to 
analyze  each  detail,  and  charge  it  with  its  proper  pro- 
portion of  the  general  expenses,  and  define  its  particular 
profit  or  loss;  to  provide  a  means  of  comparing  each  de- 
tail with  the  past,  and  with  similar  details  upon  other 


228  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

roads;  and,  by  mere  transcription  of  the  totals  of  its 
several  accounts,  furnish  the  precise  data  for  the  various 
reports  which  each  company  must  make  to  state  offi- 
cials or  the  United  States  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion. Yet  these  uses  of  their  accounting  systems  long 
since  came  to  be  regarded  by  the  railroads  as  profitable 
and  comparatively  simple. 

But  when  railroad  scandals,  misdeeds  and  rebates 
called  for  a  drastic  and  far-reaching  remedy,  it  was 
found  in  an  accounting  system  embodied  in  printed 
blanks;  and  a  college  professor  was  appointed  to  devise 
a  set  of  rigid  yet  comprehensive  reports  to  be  furnished 
by  each  interstate  railroad.  These  reports,  calling  for 
minutely  detailed  information  under  many  headings, 
are  to  be  the  means  through  which  the  general  govern- 
ment expects  to  prevent  a  recurrence  of  the  evils  com- 
plained of  in  the  past.  Furthermore,  in  their  latest  form, 
these  reports  are  so  designed  as  to  enable  investors  and 
the  public  to  know  just  what  the  railroads  are  earning, 
and  hence  what  is  the  true  and  relative  value  of  their 
securities,  judged  by  an  intelligible  standard  which  ap- 
plies alike  to  every  railroad  doing  an  interstate  business. 
Thus,  through  the  employment,  universally,  of  such  a 
mere  administrative  detail  as  a  uniform  accounting  sys- 
tem, the  government  proposes  to  protect  not  only  itself 
and  the  public  who  use  the  railroads,  but  also  those  who 
deal  with  or  own  the  most  extensive  form  of  investment 
securities  in  our  country. 

Our  railroads,  while  obeying  the  mandates  of  this  law, 
will  actually  be  benefited  financially  and  otherwise  by 
this  wonderful  advance  in  administrative  methods,  for 


The  Use  oj  Blank  Forms  229 

the  new  system  will  force  itself  into  every  department  of 
their  organization  and  enforce  better  work  therein,  and 
thus  improve  the  morale  and  consequent  financial  re- 
sults of  every  part  and  of  the  whole.  In  the  past  our 
railroads  have  often  complained  of  and  resisted  the  in- 
creasing expense  entailed  upon  them  by  the  more  de- 
tailed reports  constantly  called  for  by  governmental 
commissions;  but  the  great  trunk  lines  could  not  if  they 
would,  and  would  not  if  they  could,  go  back  to  their 
administrative  conditions  of  fifteen  years  ago,  nor  wipe 
out  the  splendid  advantages  which  have  come  to  them 
because  they  have  been  compelled  to  arrange  their  audit- 
ing and  accounting  departments  so  as  to  furnish  the  ex- 
act details  called  for  by  the  government.  These  new^ 
accounting  requirements  have  compelled  them  to  ana- 
lyze sharply  their  own  business,  and  compare  it  in  all  its 
details  with  similar  details  furnished  by  their  compet- 
itors. Here  is  another  illustration  of  the  benefits  that 
would  flow  to  the  colleges  by  the  enforcement  of  a  sys- 
tem which  was  practically  universal  in  its  use  in  insti- 
tutions of  the  same  class. 

The  same  things  are  true  of  each  successive  improve- 
ment in  the  cost- accounting  of  a  factory.  It  is  not  only 
a  safeguard  and  record,  but  the  philosopher,  guide  and 
friend  of  the  captains  of  industry  who  are  the  executive 
officers  of  the  concern.  As  a  ready  reckoner  and  chart, 
it  multiplies  the  powers  and  value  of  the  best  men  of  the 
company,  while  it  checks  off  their  work  as  well.  It 
enables  them  to  pass  over  the  minor  matters  to  assist- 
ants, but  furnishes  exact  data  on  which  to  decide  the 
most  momentous  questions.  At  present  one  great  fault 


230          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

of  the  colleges  is  that  there  is  no  way  of  checking  off  the 
production,  that  is,  the  professors'  work.  For  many 
instructors  have  an  antiquated  idea  that  it  is  an  insult 
to  suggest  that  they  need  to  have  their  work  checked  off. 
A  distinguished  professor  once  said:  "For  the  presi- 
dent even  to  inquire  as  to  the  methods  of  my  department 
is  to  express  dissatisfaction.  If  he  were  entirely  satis- 
fied he  would  not  inquire.  To  inquire,  therefore,  is 
simply  to  offer  me  an  insult." 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  why  there  is  so  much  jealousy 
in  college  in  regard  to  administrative  reforms.  They 
are  not  under  the  charge  of  a  separate  and  coordinate 
department  of  administrative  experts,  but  under  peda- 
gogical colleagues  who  are  deputed  to  do  some  extra 
and  much-needed  administrative  work.  It  is  only  hu- 
man nature  that  any  proposed  changes  should  bear 
rather  harder  on  some  instructors  than  on  others;  and 
hence  be  resented  as  the  arrogance,  interference  or  un- 
fairness proposed  by  a  fellow-teacher.  We  must  expect 
this  feeling  to  hinder  true  progress  until  such  time  as  we 
put  the  administrators  in  a  separate  department  of 
their  own,  and  give  them  real  authority  commensurate 
with  the  dignity  and  importance  of  their  work. 

The  attitude  of  the  head  of  a  great  business  concern  is 
just  the  contrary  to  that  of  the  college.  He  is  constantly 
striving  to  put  into  effect  new  and  improved  administra- 
tive methods  to  check  off  the  work  of  himself  and  of 
every  other  man  in  the  business,  that  thereby  each  may 
do  better  work  with  less  exertion.  He  will  gladly  pay  a 
premium  for  any  new  plan  by  which  he  can  measure  up 
and  improve  his  own  work.  The  college  financial  de- 


The  Use  oj  Blank  Forms  231 

partment  sometimes  provides  a  method  of  auditing  the 
dollars  and  cents,  but  there  is  no  college  bureau  that  can 
furnish  an  audit  of  the  days  and  hours  of  teachers  and 
taught  which  must  not  be  wasted,  for  the  undergradu- 
ates will  not  pass  that  way  again. 

Many  of  the  alumni  are  eventually  to  become  part  of 
some  great  corporate  or  business  system  which  has  been 
made  possible  by  rigid  adherence  to  modern  forms, 
blanks  and  accounting  systems,  and  by  the  science  and 
brains  which  make  use  of  these  as  they  do  of  any  other 
improved  modern  machinery.  There  is  nothing  novel 
or  unusual  about  such  an  idea.  We  are  in  constant 
touch  with  such  methods.  We  have  to  do  with  a  system 
of  forms,  blanks  and  accounts  whenever  we  deal  with  a 
a  public-service  corporation,  or  a  department  store,  or  a 
great  factory,  or  pay  our  taxes,  or  touch  the  affairs  of 
any  governmental  agency.  Why,  then,  should  not  the 
student  citizens  be  better  fitted  for  their  life's  work  by 
intelligent  contact  with  such  agencies  during  their  college 
course? 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  then,  college  pedagogy  is  the  only 
profession,  dealing  with  large  numbers  of  men  and  in 
active  competition  with  other  great  institutions  of  the 
same  kind,  which  has  not  appreciated  the  administra- 
tive, formative  and  scientific  value  of  a  modern  stand- 
ardized system  of  forms,  blanks,  precedents  and  ac- 
counting. It  and  its  students  have  paid  dearly  for  its 
ignorance  and  blindness,  but  must  now  learn  by  ex- 
perience the  true  value  and  unlimited  uses  of  these 
agencies.  The  reorganized  college  administrative  and 
executive  departments  will  make  it  the  first  task  to  revo- 


232  The  Reorganization  0}  Our  Colleges 

lutionize  all  this.  So  long  as  this  simple  yet  extensively 
applicable  agency  is  not  comprehensively  and  intelli- 
gently used  by  our  colleges,  and  the  work  of  each  and 
all  their  activities  checked  off,  compared  and  standard- 
ized, we  must  expect  to  continue  to  get  only  the  thirty 
per  cent  of  possible  results  in  training  for  citizenship 
which  the  colleges  have  so  often  given  us.  They  will 
still  continue  to  exhibit  their  lack  of  understanding  of 
their  own  true  aims  and  purposes,  their  incompetence 
to  analyze  their  subjects,  their  lack  of  uniformity  and 
comprehension  in  their  treatment  of  their  problems, 
their  use  of  their  best  minds  to  do  clerical  work,  and 
their  inability  to  avoid  future  mistakes  through  studying 
and  charting  their  earlier  ones. 

The  various  places  where  proper  and  standardized 
blanks,  forms  and  precedents,  and  accounting  systems 
based  thereon,  will  improve  college  results,  will  appear  as 
we  proceed,  and  not  least  in  connection  with  the  mark- 
ing system.  Most  forms  can  and  should  be  constantly 
improved  as  often  as  experience  and  new  conditions 
require  changes.  Hence  the  reorganized  colleges  must 
not  be  satisfied  with  what  will  seem  sufficient  in  an 
earlier  stage  of  their  development,  but  must  constantly 
look  for  and  make  improvements.  They  must  print 
their  forms  and  blanks  in  small  editions  to  enable  them 
to  change  them  as  frequently  as  they  can  profitably  do 
so.  Yet  one  dean  writes: 

"Colleges  are  afraid  of  expense  and  will  not  print  forms 
even  at  the  request  of  a  dean,  for  fear  that  they  may  not  be 
used  enough  to  pay  or  may  be  superseded  next  year  by  some- 
thing better!" 


The  Use  oj  Blank  Forms  233 

Good  business  practice  is  quite  the  opposite  to  this,  and 
changes  and  improvements  are  constantly  made  in  each 
new  edition  of  blanks. 

Nor  must  the  colleges  make  a  fetish  out  of  any  system 
of  forms.  At  best  it  is  only  a  means  to  an  end,  and  they 
must  not  overelaborate  it  nor  let  it  become  their  master 
to  be  slavishly  followed.  Moreover,  a  simple  system, 
closely  and  wisely  used,  is  far  better  than  an  elaborate 
one  which  is  used  in  a  perfunctory  or  slovenly  manner. 
Above  all,  they  must  avoid  degeneration  into  red  tape  or 
the  use  of  any  unnecessary  detail  whose  advantage  is  not 
clearly  seen.  The  elaborate  reports  of  the  railroads  to 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  would  not  be 
tolerated  if  the  object  of  every  detail  was  not  clearly 
evident.  Indeed,  these  forms  have  been  prepared  with 
the  active  cooperation  of  the  accounting  departments  of 
the  railroads  with  the  Commission's  experts.  In  other 
words,  the  colleges  must  remember  that  there  are  forms 
and  forms,  and  that  forms  and  blanks  are  in  the  nature 
of  administrative  expense  saddled  upon  the  producing 
forces,  and  therefore  to  be  used  as  sparingly  as  possible. 
An  institution  should  not  take  pride  in  a  system  of  forms 
because  it  is  elaborate,  but  rather  in  a  system  in  which 
every  form  is  indispensable  because  it  is  directed  to  some 
comprehensive  and  important  end,  or  to  furnish  new 
units  of  value  by  means  of  which  to  demonstrate  what 
every  part  of  the  work  is  doing,  and  thus  to  add  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  whole  in  training  for  ennobling  and 
efficient  citizenship. 

An  instructor  writes: 

"It  might  be  observed  that  most  college  professors  detest 


234          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

blanks,  and  that  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  get  them  to 
make  good  use  of  those  they  now  have." 

This  is  partly  because  the  present  forms  are  of  little 
value  and  lead  nowhere,  and  partly  because  there  is  no 
coordinate  and  independent  department  in  charge  of  the 
system. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

STUDY  AND  CARE  OF  ITS  PLANT  BY  THE  REORGANIZED 
COLLEGE — THE  COLLEGE  INVENTORY 

THE  new  administrative  department  will  have  the 
brains,  experience  and  desire  to  make  a  full  inventory 
and  analysis  of  its  plant,  animate  and  inanimate,  and  of 
its  capabilities,  to  the  end  that  thereafter  full  value  and 
results  shall  constantly  be  gotten  out  of  the  plant  and 
each  and  every  part  thereof. 

An  example  from  a  modern  reorganization  will  illus- 
trate how  these  things  are  not  done  in  the  colleges.  Upon 
its  incorporation,  a  certain  trust  took  over  about  thirty 
mills  of  varying  sizes  and  descriptions,  situated  in  many 
different  states,  but  all  engaged  in  some  branch  of  the 
same  great  industry.  One  of  the  first  things  done  was 
to  make  an  exhaustive  study  of  each  plant  to  ascertain 
what  it  comprised,  how  it  could  be  simplified  and  im- 
proved, and  then  how  it  could  be  coordinated  into  the 
new  great  working  whole.  Many  processes  and  much 
costly  machinery  were  found  to  be  duplicated.  For  ex- 
ample, each  mill  had  disposed  of  its  waste  material  upon 
its  own  plan  or  for  its  own  purposes.  This  system  was 
changed,  and  all  the  waste  was  shipped  to  one  of  four 
conveniently  located  plants  especially  reequipped  to 
get  the  highest  price  for  this  waste  at  the  least  cost;  and  a 
further  saving  was  effected  by  cutting  out  corresponding 
departments  and  processes  in  the  twenty-six  other  mills. 

235 


236          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

Furthermore,  the  new  management  found  itself  the 
owner  of  thirty  mills,  none  of  which  could  furnish  a 
comprehensive  inventory  upon  a  given  plan.  Hence 
there  was  organized,  upon  a  scientific  basis,  a  new  in- 
ventory-taking department,  headed  by  a  skilled  super- 
intendent, who  was  given  the  necessary  assistants  and 
such  local  aids  as  were  desirable.  At  the  end  of  three 
years  this  department  had  paid  for  itself  twenty  times 
over  by  the  vast  amount  of  machinery,  tools  and  parts 
which  it  had  unearthed,  listed,  and  made  salable  or 
available  in  the  different  mills.  But  this  was  one  of  the 
least  important  of  its  good  results.  It  had  provided  an 
unerring  chart  for  future  work  and  improvements.  For 
example,  if  the  company  wished  to  install  a  new  ma- 
chine, costing  $100,000,  it  could  set  it  up  in  Mill  A  and 
thereby  replace  an  $80,000  machine,  which  could  be 
profitably  put  into  Mill  B.  The  $60,000  machine  there 
displaced  could  be  set  up  in  Mill  C,  and  so  on  down  the 
line  until  the  machine  thrown  out  in  Mill  K  was  fit  only 
for  the  scrap  heap — and  all  this  by  the  aid  of  an  inven- 
tory which  was  merely  the  scientific  and  complete  record 
of  an  administrative  bureau,  yet  which  would  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  matter  of  course  in  such  a  reorganization. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  in  this  single  department 
of  one  trust  there  was  more  scientific  study  of  the  con- 
cents plant,  and  a  more  complete  record  and  use  of  what 
was  thereby  found,  than  have  been  made  in  a  decade  by 
all  of  our  850  colleges  and  universities,  with  their  $300,- 
000,000  of  fixed  plant  and  $300,000,000  of  funded  capital. 

The  words  of  the  eminent  instructor  quoted  above, 
"Did  you  ever  know  folk  who  sang  so  many  paeans  to 


Study  and  Care  oj  the  College  Plant          237 

themselves?"  impress  the  candid  observer  of  college 
catalogues  and  other  official  publications.  The  insti- 
tutions too  often  hold  up  certain  ideal  conditions  as 
substantially  realized  in  their  own  case,  and  they  finally 
come  to  believe  that  these  conditions  are  actually  ideal 
and  existent.  Yet  careful  inquiry  often  demonstrates 
that  in  these  very  particulars  the  college  is  in  a  very  bad 
shape.  Recently  an  old  and  active  alumnus  trustee  in 
a  leading  university  complained  bitterly  to  me  of  certain 
vicious  tendencies  which  he  claimed  were  rampant 
therein,  although  he  had  been  fighting  them  constantly 
for  many  years.  On  the  same  day  I  received  a  letter 
from  the  president  of  the  same  institution  expressing 
supreme  satisfaction  that  these  very  evils  had  not  ex- 
isted and  could  not  exist  therein.  Both  of  these  men 
are  well  known  and  widely  honored,  but  either  one  or 
the  other  was  not  perfectly  frank,  or  else  the  facts  about 
important  branches  of  the  institution  had  not  been  prop- 
erly studied  and  made  known,  so  as  to  furnish  a  com- 
mon ground  for  discussing  them.  It  was  undoubtedly 
an  honest  difference,  but,  from  a  business  standpoint, 
an  unnecessary  one;  and  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
commonwealth  and  the  undergraduate  an  unpardonable 
difference  which  could  not  have  existed  if  an  available 
and  accurate  annual  inventory  had  revealed  the  real 
facts. 

The  second  annual  report  of  the  Carnegie  Founda- 
tion (p.  37)  says: 

"The  catalogues  of  many  colleges  are  prepared  in  such  \ 
manner  as  to  make  it  difficult  to  extract  from  them  exact  1 
and  specific  information  concerning  courses,  entrance  re- 


238          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

quirements  and  facilities  for  work.  There  runs  through 
most  of  these  publications  an  optimistic  view  of  the  facilities 
and  excellencies  of  the  institution  which  goes  far  toward 
making  these  publications  advertisements  rather  than  sim- 
ple, straightforward  accounts  of  those  things  which  students 
and  the  public  seek  to  know.'* 

A  proper  inventory  shows  what  goods  are  shopworn 
or  otherwise  defective.  Furthermore,  goods  are  taken 
at  cost  and  not  at  their  selling  or  catalogue  value.  There 
has  been  too  much  tendency  to  take  everything  in  a 
college  at  its  catalogue  and  not  at  its  true  value  educa- 
tionally. The  college  has  no  data  such  as  a  good  in- 
ventory gives  to  the  dealer  or  manufacturer,  by  which 
it  can  tell  just  what  it  has  on  its  shelves.  The  nearest 
approach  that  any  college  has  made  to  taking  a  full  in- 
ventory was  in  the  case  of  the  Briggs  Report,  already 
referred  to,  made  to  the  Harvard  faculty  in  1904.  The 
conditions  disclosed  were  certainly  not  edifying,  but  the 
spirit  in  which  the  investigation  of  a  small  part  of  the 
college  work  was  made,  and  the  frank  and  full  report 
thereof  published,  was  worthy  of  the  best  modern  busi- 
ness practice  and  of  being  carefully  followed  by  this  and 
other  institutions.  So  far  as  it  went  it  was  a  splendid 
example  of  how  a  college  may  well  take  an  account  of 
stock,  but  it  should  be  followed  up  and  taken  annually, 
ynot  by  one  college  but  by  many,  and  the  results  collated 
and  compared.  Otherwise  one  half  of  the  true  value 
and  power  for  good  of  such  work  is  lost. 

But  very  frequently  a  college  president  or  professor 
resents  it  if  you  mildly  suggest  that  there  is  nothing  in 
our  colleges  of  the  nature  of  a  modern  high-class  ad- 
ministrative department.  The  administration  as  an  ad- 


Study  and  Care  0}  the  College  Plant          239 

junct  to  the  other  duties  of  the  instructors,  which  we  see 
in  so  many  colleges,  serves  only  to  promote  jealousy, 
becloud  the  issue,  delay  real  reform  and  hinder  peda- 
gogical results.  If  the  head  of  such  a  system  would 
spend  a  month  going  carefully  over  the  details  and  ideals 
of  the  administrative  bureaus  of  a  great  business  cor- 
poration, his  head  would  reel,  but  he  would  have  some 
idea  of  what  true  administration  means — outside  of  our 
colleges — and  the  great  purposes,  all  good  and  helpful, 
which  it  serves.  It  would  be  better  still  if  our  college 
presidents  and  chief  professors  would  spend  their  sab- 
batical years  in  their  own  country  at  the  heart  of  a 
modern  trust,  and  there  learn  how  the  least  as  well  as 
the  greatest  things  are  checked  off  and  accounted  for; 
how  many  units  there  are  besides  those  of  the  cash 
debits  and  credits  of  the  concern;  how  every  detail  is 
watched  and  its  record  kept;  how  every  department  is 
set  off  against  its  fellow;  how  each  day  tells  its  tale  to 
those  that  follow,  and  all  march  on  to  the  end  of  the 
fiscal  year  and  the  final  balance  sheet.  Then,  and  not 
till  then,  will  our  teaching  force  have  some  adequate  no- 
tion of  how  pseudo  administration  can  clog  their  work, 
and  an  up-to-date  administrative  department  could 
transform  a  college  and  its  ideals  and  net  educational 
results,  and  restore  its  former  high  meaning  to  the  term 
"college  education." 


CHAPTER  XX 

HOW   THE    REORGANIZED   COLLEGE   WILL   STUDY    ITS 
FIELD 

THE  wise  manufacturer  or  business  man  studies  most 
carefully  the  field  into  which  he  must  send  his  goods;  or 
else  he  will  soon  become  bankrupt.  He  must  know 
about  railroad  and  water  freights,  tariff  and  police  regu- 
lations, internal  revenue  and  pure-food  rules,  local  leg- 
islation and  habits,  and  scores  of  other  details  before 
determining  how  many  and  what  manner  of  goods  shall 
be  produced.  This  often  necessitates  an  extensive  pri- 
vate bureau  of  information,  supplemented  by  any  fur- 
ther figures  which  can  be  gotten  from  the  great  govern- 
mental bureaus  and  commissions,  and  a  "follow-up" 
system,  and  many  other  administrative  agencies.  But 
all  this  implies  that  the  field  constantly  changes  in  some 
particular  which  must  be  as  constantly  watched  and 
provided  for  in  the  economy  of  the  business.  This 
study  of  the  field  also  requires  a  continual  push  into  new 
fields,  and  if  necessary  the  creation  of  new  wants  which 
shall  be  filled  by  new  goods,  or  the  making  of  new  prod- 
ucts to  replace  more  ancient  or  less  efficient  or  more 
costly  forms. 

Much  has  been  written  and  is  being  written  about  the 
change  of  the  college  field  from  the  earlier  days — when 
its  graduates  were  fitted  only  for  the  ministry,  law, 

240 


Studying  the  College  Field  241 

medicine  or  teaching,  "  the  learned  professions" — to  the 
present  time  when  scores  of  courses  can  be  pursued  in 
our  colleges  and  universities  and  technical,  agricul- 
tural and  normal  schools.  But  this  undoubted  change 
calls  for  a  correspondingly  widespread  and  standardized 
study  of  the  field,  and  its  past,  present  and  probable 
changes. 

One  of  the  needed  administrative  reforms  in  most  col- 
leges is  a  studying  of  their  respective  fields,  to  insure  that 
their  scrap-heap  education  shall  fit  its  victims  for  some 
field,  even  if  it  does  not  go  so  far  as  actually  to  unfit  them 
for  any  real  service  in  future  years;  and  then,  if  possible, 
to  insure  that  there  is  some  proper  opportunity  for  each 
graduate.  With  a  growing  proportion  of  our  college 
graduates  it  is  no  longer  a  question  of  square  or  round 
pegs  to  fit  square  or  round  holes,  but  of  polygonic  pegs 
to  fit  holes  of  the  most  intricate  design.  About  fifty  per 
cent  of  our  undergraduates  finally  drift  into  business. 
What  is  here  said  shows  how  far  the  college  methods 
and  ideals  of  good  work  are  often  below  those  of  first- 
class  business;  and  how  far,  except  under  the  professional 
coach,  a  college  course  may  unfit  a  young  man  for  his 
life's  work,  especially  in  business;  and  how  little  these 
four  years  may  contain  of  real  value  to  the  student  in 
finding  himself  and  in  training  for  efficient  citizenship — 
to  offset  the  corresponding  years  of  growth  and  indi- 
vidual training  which  his  high-school  fellows  will  have 
gained  under  the  strict  schooling  of  a  modern  business 
office.  We  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  dwarfing  effects 
upon  her  undergraduates  of  Alma  Mater's  own  failure 
to  introduce  and  practice  the  best  administrative  meth- 


242  The  Reorganization  0}  Our  Colleges 

ods,  including  a  careful  survey  of  possible  fields,  and 
the  accurate  exhibition  of  these  fields  before  her  stu- 
dents, with  every  possible  aid  in  assisting  them  to  train 
in  some  one  general  direction.  As  a  consequence  a  col- 
lege education  is  barred  out  in  many  establishments  as 
an  undesirable  thing,  while  it  has  lost  its  pristine  pre- 
eminence in  the  eyes  of  many  parents. 

Far  as  the  high-school  education  of  to-day  has  ad- 
vanced beyond  the  three  R's  of  the  old  "  writing  schools," 
so  far  also  has  the  demand  for  well-trained  college  gr,ad- 
uates  advanced  beyond  the  older  learned  professions  of 
ministry,  medicine,  teaching  and  law.  There  is  a  con- 
stant call  for  well-trained  college  men,  but  many  fields 
are  overcrowded  with  incompetents  as  well  as  com- 
petents ;  and  new  fields  must  be  incessantly  watched  for 
as  they  are  being  created  every  year.  In  business  such 
a  condition  would  cause  the  immediate  organization 
and  scientific  equipment  of  a  bureau,  not  only  to  study 
the  field,  but  to  lay  the  exact  results  before  the  produc- 
ing and  selling  staff,  and  profit  by  their  advice  which  is 
founded  on  knowledge  gained  by  actual  service  in  the 
factory  and  the  field.  One  well-known  concern,  whose 
market  is  among  the  farmers,  annually  gathers  its  sales- 
men together  at  its  plant  near  New  York,  entertaining 
them  and  their  families,  and  paying  for  a  special  train 
from  the  West.  For  certain  hours  each  day  a  conven- 
tion is  held  at  the  factory,  at  which  the  company's  op- 
portunities, capabilities  and  field  are  matched  up  and 
discussed,  and  during  the  rest  of  the  time  the  company's 
guests  are  handsomely  entertained  at  its  expense.  Tens 
of  thousands  of  dollars  are  thus  spent  annually  by  one 


Studying  the  College  Field  243 

concern  to  make  a  market  for  a  comparatively  cheap 
machine.  What  a  sorry  contrast  to  such  a  study  of  its 
field  do  our  college  factories  present  with  their  output  of 
the  best  youth  of  our  land !  The  college  can  never  ap- 
proximate to  doing  its  full  duty  to  the  state  until  it  does 
all  in  its  power,  not  only  to  fit  men  for  lives  of  future  use- 
fulness, but  also  to  insure  that  its  graduates  find  places 
where  they  can  grow  until  they  in  turn  are  fully  able  to 
do  their  entire  duty  to  the  state. 

Our  colleges  may  well  take  a  leaf  from  the  experience 
of  their  business  competitors,  and  insure  and  take  pride 
in  the  future  successes  of  their  alumni,  and  the  reduc- 
tion of  their  own  waste  heaps  to  the  smallest  possible 
proportions.  It  is  very  well  to  have  a  theory  of  educa- 
tion which  argues  that  some  particular  culture  course  or 
method  must  be  better  than  any  other;  but  it  is  far 
wiser  to  have  an  administrative  department  which  shall 
study  the  college  plant  and  its  capabilities,  and  the 
fields  which  lie  before  its  graduates,  and  at  least  at- 
tempt to  whittle  down  its  students  approximately  to  the 
holes  into  which  they  are  likely  to  be  applied.  Such  a 
department  and  such  a  scientific  utilitarianism  would 
make  our  college  teaching  more  rewarding  and  its  re- 
sults more  sure,  and  tend  to  restore  college  education 
and  the  reputation  of  the  various  institutions  to  some- 
thing like  their  former  high  level.  At  least  it  would 
shut  the  mouths  of  most  critics  who  now  rightfully  find 
fault  with  college  methods  and  results,  and  decry  a 
"college  education." 

Many  of  our  medical  courses  have  been  extended  to 
four  years  in  addition  to  an  A.B.  degree,  and  as  a  result 


244  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

our  young  men  may  not  be  able  to  commence  their  pro- 
fessional careers  before  they  are  twenty-seven  or  twenty- 
eight  years  of  age.  A  year  or  two  at  this  period  of  life 
is  very  valuable.  No  merchant  who  haggles  over  a 
commissioner  discount  of  one  sixteenth  or  one  thirty- 
second  of  one  per  cent  would  think  of  wasting  a  year's 
time  and  salary  of  his  best  workmen.  Yet  while  our 
universities  properly  keep  on  raising  their  professional 
requirements,  they  take  no  adequate  steps  to  save  a 
year  or  two  of  the  productive  lives  of  their  students,  by 
insuring  that  better  work  is  done  in  earlier  educational 
stages,  so  that  a  year  or  two  may  be  saved  at  the  end. 
It  seems  certain  that  Germany  covers  in  twelve  years 
just  what  our  schools  cover  in  fourteen,  and  does  it 
better.  But  the  investigation  and  remedying  of  such 
conditions  belongs  not  to  the  pedagogical  department 
but  to  the  administrative.  The  latter  must  find  out 
ways  of  doing  good  work  in  less  time,  and  with  less  loss 
of  time. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  MARKING  SYSTEM   IN  THE  REORGANIZED   COLLEGE 

IN  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges"1  it  was 
shown  that  in  the  earlier  days  marks  were  used  solely 
to  determine  the  relative  rank  of  the  students  upon  the 
commencement  programme,  and  never  to  "bust  out"  of 
college;  but  that  now  the  marking  system  survives  as  the 
sole  test  of  college  work,  yet  in  the  crudest  possible  form 
of  a  decimal  or  a,  b,  c,  d,  e  plan.  In  none  of  my  read- 
ing of  early  college  histories,  biographies  or  scrapbooks 
have  I  been  able  to  find  a  single  instance  where  a  stu- 
dent was  dismissed  for  poor  scholarship  so  long  as  he 
was  not  morally  delinquent.  On  the  other  hand,  a  little 
more  than  fifty  years  ago  there  came  up  in  the  Yale 
faculty  the  case  of  a  student  whose  standing  was  so  low 
in  his  studies  that  James  Hadley,  professor  of  Latin, 
and  the  father  of  the  present  president  of  Yale,  desired 
him  dropped  from  college.  But  a  professor  who  had 
special  charge  of  religious  interests  and  led  the  stu- 
dents' prayer  meetings  said  that  he  had  observed  the 
young  man  in  these  meetings,  and  had  noticed  that  he 
seemed  gifted  in  prayer,  and  that  he  believed  that  his 
influence  over  his  fellow-students  was  good;  and  that 
therefore  he  hoped  that  he  would  be  retained.  By  a 
narrow  vote  the  student  was  allowed  to  remain  in  col- 

1  Pp.  57, 185-188,  192, 193. 
245 


246  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

lege,  but  Professor  Hadley  remarked  that  he  hoped  that 
he  would  be  given  to  understand  that  his  position  was 
"a  precari-ous  one." 

The  valuelessness  of  the  present  college  marking,  or 
pedagogical,  or  administrative  systems  in  giving  a  pro- 
fessor any  acquaintance  with  his  pupils,  or  in  furnishing 
him  with  units  of  differing  values  by  which  to  judge  of 
the  real  results  of  his  own  work,  is  indicated  by  the  fol- 
lowing extract  from  a  letter  from  the  treasurer  of  an 
important  corporation  in  Boston: 

"I  was  lunching  yesterday  with  a  recent  Harvard  gradu- 
ate of  high  standing  who  told  me  that  when  some  time  ago 
he  was  asked  for  references  to  his  professors  he  could  give 
none,  for  not  one  of  them  knew  him." 

It  is  not  probable  that  such  a  young  man  would  have 
spent  four  years  with  a  good  business  concern  without 
leaving  some  permanent  record  behind  him.  If  some  of 
the  best  technical  schools  can  get  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  strong  and  weak  points  of  their  students,  and  thus 
find  positions  to  which  each  student  is  fitted,  the  colleges 
ought  to  be  able  to  accomplish  something  like  this  for 
their  graduates. 

Recently  application  was  made  to  some  well-known 
educators  engaged  in  normal  work  for  an  improved 
marking  form,  adapted  to  aid  alumni  in  supervising  the 
work  of  undergraduates  in  whose  course  they  were  per- 
sonally interested ;  that  is,  for  a  record  which  would  have 
a  definite  meaning  and  value  to  some  one  besides  the 
man  who  made  it  in  his  own  blind  hieroglyphics,  which, 
even  to  him,  have  different  values  at  different  times  and 
with  different  students.  After  several  consultations  the 


The  Marking  System  247 

assurance  was  given  that  it  was  practically  impossible  to 
better  the  present  decimal  or  a,  b,  c,  d,  e  form.  There- 
upon the  layman,  acquainted  with  business  forms,  de- 
vised the  blank  given  below.  Admittedly,  under  present 
college  conditions,  this  form  can  be  adopted  only  in  ex- 
ceptional cases,  but  that  merely  demonstrates  the  faulti- 
ness  of  those  conditions.  Moreover,  the  blank  would 
not  have  its  true  value  for  the  college  unless  it  was  fitted 
into  a  general  scheme  and  chart,  and  its  results  could 
be  transcribed  so  as  to  check  off  the  work  of  the  class, 
teacher  and  department.  This  blank  was  originally 
prepared  with  the  intention  of  aiding  fraternity  alumni 
who  wished  to  give  time  and  thought  to  the  progress 
of  undergraduates  in  whom  they  were  interested,  but 
at  whose  recitations  they  could  not  be  present.  It  is 
offered  merely  as  a  suggestion  upon  which  new  marking 
systems  might  be  based.  It  coincides  with  the  ordinary 
decimal  or  a,  b,  c,  d,  e  system  only  at  the  fourteenth 
heading: 

To  PROF. : 

NOTE. — It  is  with  the  full  approval  and  co-operation  of  the  stu- 
dent that  you  are  requested  to  fill  out  this  paper.  He  has  a  copy  of 
this  blank,  and  knows  that  he  is  to  be  marked  by  you,  and  as  well 
by  some  of  his  fellow  students  who  are  with  him  in  your  class — though 
he  understands  that  he  will  not  see  the  report.  This  system  of  grad- 
ing is  part  of  an  undertaking  by  which  alumni  friends  of  the  student  in 
question  hope  (a)  that  he  will  do  better  work  in  your  subject,  (b) 
that  there  will  be  a  closer  bond  between  preceptor  and  student;  and 
that  thereby  information  may  be  secured  and  recorded  concerning 
his  intellectual  and  moral  characteristics  which  will  be  of  value  (c)  in 
his  future  work  in  college,  and  (d)  in  giving  him  a  start  after  leaving 
college.  A  duplicate  is  furnished  for  your  own  records. 

The  following  marking  system  is  suggested,  but  any  other,  if  ac- 
companied by  explanation,  may  be  used:  A,  90  to  100;  B,  80  to  89; 
C,  65  to  79;  D,  1,0  to  64,  E,  below  50.  Or  with  the  same  relative 
meanings  respectively:  High,  Excellent,  Fair,  Passable,  Failure. 


248          The  Reorganization  o)  Our  Colleges 


We  trust  that  you  will  not  fail  to  tell  the  student  frankly  in  what 
he  is  lacking  or  doing  poor  work.  We  will  cordially  join  with  you  in 
improving  his  work  in  your  department,  and  his  general  growth  in 
intellectual  and  moral  character.  We  will  be  pleased  to  receive, 
confidentially  or  otherwise,  any  suggestions  as  to  how  we  may  aid 
either  yourself  or  the  student,  and  trust  you  will  appreciate  that,  in 
asking  your  co-operation,  we  are  attempting  to  effectually  supplement 
your  own  good  efforts  in  the  student's  behalf;  and  also  that  you  will 
not  hesitate  to  disregard  any  subdivision  which  you  feel  that  for  any 
reason  you  cannot  fill  out  to  advantage. 

To  aid  us  in  advising  him  concerning  his  work  in  and 
after  college,  will  you  kindly,  so  far  as  you  con- 
veniently can,  give  us  your  estimate  of  the  ability, 
in  comparison  with  college  students  in  general,  of 

Name 

College 

Class 

Subject 

Instructor 

Date  of  this  report 

Is  your  subject  one  of  general  culture,  or  is  it 
one  likely  to  be  of  direct  use  to  him  in  his  expected 
life  work? 


Interest  in  subject,  as  shown  by 

(a)  Punctuality. 

(b)  Regularity  of  attendance. 

(c)  Cuts. 
Attention  in  classroom. 

(a)  Courteousness  toward  teacher. 

(b)  Reading  newspapers,  listlessness, 

etc. 
Accuracy  of  mental  action. 

(a)  Grasp  of  main  points  of  subject. 

(b)  Grasp  of  finer  distinctions  of  sub- 

ject. 

(Note  especially  mental  slovenli- 
ness, inaccuracy  or  lack  of  definite 
understanding  "of  subject.) 
Accuracy  of  expression. 

(a)  Oral  (in  recitations). 

(b)  In  written  exercises. 


In  subject 

pursued 

under  you. 


In 
general. 


The  Marking  System 


249 


5.  English. 

(a)  Orthography. 

(b)  Expression. 

(c)  Range  of  vocabulary. 

(d)  Chirography. 

(e)  Neatness  of  written  or  blackboard 

exercises. 

6.  Perseverance  (including  thoroughness). 

(a)  Determination  to  master  obscure 

points. 

(b)  Readiness  to  do  extra  work  if  nec- 

essary to  master  subject. 

(c)  Interest    in    general    reading   and 

sidelights  on  subject. 

7.  Originality. 

(a)  Ability  to  form  independent  judg- 

ment. 

(b)  Ability  to  logically  maintain  same. 

(c)  Ability  and  willingness  to  take  ini- 

tiative among  his  fellow  students 
(leadership). 

8.  Co-operative  spirit. 

(a)  With  you. 

(b)  With  his  fellow  students. 

9.  Faithfulness  (sense  of  responsibility). 

(a)  With  you. 

(b)  With  his  fellow  students. 

10.  As  a  student,  does  he  learn 

(a)  With  difficulty. 

(b)  With  ordinary  ease. 

(c)  Quickly. 

11.  Is  his  memory 

(a)  Poor. 

(b)  Fair. 

(c)  Superior. 

12.  Is  his  general  work  with  you 

(a)  Brilliant. 

(b)  Excellent. 

(c)  Ordinary. 

(d)  Plodding. 

(e)  Poor. 

13.  Does  he,  apparently,  pass  his  examina- 
tions principally 

(a)  By  cramming. 

(b)  On  general  work  through  the  term. 

(c)  By  a  combination  of  both. 


In  subject 

pursued 
under  you. 


In 
general. 


250          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 


14.  Give  his  grade  in  work  as  marked  and 

reported  under  the  rules  of  your  in- 
stitution. 

15.  In  your  opinion  is  his  work  unfavorably 

affected 

(a)  By  the  state  of  his  health. 

(b)  By  his  habits. 

(c)  By  his  social,  athletic  or  other  dis- 

tractions. 

(d)  By  his  feeling  that  his  work  in  your 

department   is   not   relatively   of 
major  importance. 

(e)  By  inadequate  preparation  in  this 

or  other  departments. 

(f)  By  any  other  conditions. 

1 6.  Please  note 

(a)  Improvement  since  last  report. 

(b)  Since  first  report. 

(c)  Particular  failings  or  faults  (intel- 

lectual, moral  or  otherwise). 

(d)  Strong  characteristics  (intellectual, 

moral  or  otherwise). 

(e)  Suggestions. 


In  subject 

pursued 

under  you. 


In 

general. 


As  already  noted,  such  a  blank  as  this  would  be  faulty 
unless  made  a  part  of  a  complete  system.  The  informa- 
tion here  asked  for  could  be  much  more  easily  given  by 
a  high-school  teacher  than  by  a  college  professor  or  lec- 
turer. Then  why  not  have  some  such  record  follow  a 
boy  to  college  as  well  as  through  it  ?  In  many  factories 
a  cost  card  accompanies  a  piece  of  machinery  or  other 
product  throughout  the  whole  process  of  its  manufac- 
ture. Can  we  not  do  as  much  for  our  boys  and  their 
instructors — to  make  their  work  more  simple,  scientific 
and  effective? 

Under  a  separate  administrative  department  it  would 
not  be  difficult  to  have  a  large  card  or  paper  on  which 
this  information  could  be  charted  for  the  use  of  the  ex- 


The  Marking  System  251 

ecutive,  administrative  and  instructional  departments, 
and  for  those  in  the  student  life  department  who  were 
attempting  to  insure  that  the  young  man  found  himself 
in  college  and  that  his  training  therein  should  develop 
one  hundred  per  cent  of  the  best  stuff  that  was  in  him 
for  efficient  citizenship.  This  chart  would  also  enable 
an  earnest  student  to  see  himself  through  the  eyes  of  his 
teachers,  and  would  furnish  a  reference  in  future  life 
such  as  is  not  now  obtainable. 

With  such  a  marking  system  there  would  be  needed 
a  " follow-up"  plan  which  would  be  pretty  closely  mod- 
eled after  those  in  use  in  an  ordinary  business  office. 

In  the  reorganized  college  it  will  be  presupposed  that 
substantially  all  the  students  will  complete  their  course; 
not  that  fifty  per  cent — about  the  present  average — will 
fail  to  graduate.  Hence  a  marking  system  will  not  be 
used  chiefly  to  determine  whether  a  student  has  "skinned 
through"  on  "soft  culture"  courses  on  a  sixty  per  cent 
or  D  basis;  else  we  shall  soon  seek  a  new  head  for  our 
administrative  department. 

From  the  dean  of  one  institution  I  have  received  the 
following  concerning  a  system  of  marks  which  is  in  force 
therein,  and  under  which  a  degree  may  be  obtained  in 
less  than  four  years: 

"It  can  be  argued  in  favor  of  the  system  that  it  enables 
the  bright  student  to  graduate  sooner  than  the  dull  student. 
But  it  is  argued,  and  I  believe  effectively,  that 

"(i)  It  enables  and  encourages  the  student  to  seek  soft 
courses,  so  that  it  is  the  politician  who  gets  out  early,  rather 
than  the  student  with  serious  purpose. 

"(2)  It  enables  scheming  professors  to  trade  in  high 
grades  and  thus  make  their  class  rooms  popular.  [It  would 


252  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

not  do  for  an  outsider  and  a  layman  to  suggest  that  this 
really  occurs !  ] 

"(3)  It  draws  the  student's  attention  to  marks  rather 
than  to  the  subject  matter. 

"(4)  The  tendency  is  to  encourage  specialization  in  the 
line  easiest  for  the  student,  rather  than  the  broad  scholarship 
and  culture  essential,  especially  in  the  early  years  of  the 
course. 

"The  members  of  the  faculty  are  about  equally  divided, 
rather  against  than  for." 

This  statement  indicates  that  the  system  in  question 
has  many  good  points,  and  that  its  bad  points  come 
from  the  failure  to  supervise  and,  from  time  to  time,  to 
correct  the  system  by  a  separate  administrative  bureau. 
This  is  the  weakness  of  many  administrative  reforms 
proposed  by  the  pedagogic  department.  They  do  not 
go  quite  far  enough ;  they  are  not  quite  perfect  from  an 
administrative  standpoint,  and  are  not  under  a  separate 
department  which  must  produce  good  results  or  be 
marked  a  failure.  Hence  they  do  not  work  quite  satis- 
factorily and  therefore  are  unjustly  condemned.  An 
administrative  system  without  power  to  enforce  its  be- 
hests and  not  backed  by  the  sentiment  of  the  establish- 
ment is  largely  ineffective.  It  is  right  here  that  most 
college  experiments  are  inherently  weak. 

A  really  comprehensive  marking  system  ought  to  be 
one  of  the  most  important  features  of  the  course,  for  (a) 
it  would  enable  the  teacher  to  analyze  and  note,  under 
standardized  and  comprehensive  headings,  the  mental 
and  moral  characteristics  of  each  student,  so  that  the 
teacher  could  do  the  best  work  on  and  for  him;  (b)  it 
would  furnish  a  permanent  and  intelligible  record  for 
the  use  of  each  succeeding  teacher,  and  (c)  of  the  college 


The  Marking  System  253 

waste  heap  or  other  bureaus,  and  (d)  for  future  refer- 
ence in  after-college  days;  (e)  it  would  enable  the  student 
himself,  and  (/)  those  outside  of  the  college  who  are  fol- 
lowing his  course  and  advising  him  therein,  to  have  an 
intelligible  record  of  his  weak  and  strong  points,  which 
would  go  far  toward  getting  better  results  out  of  his 
college  course;  and  (g)  it  would  help  the  administrative 
department  to  keep  tab  on  the  professor's  work. 

This  point  can  be  made  clearer  by  a  story  which  a 
successful  college  president  in  the  West  delights  to  tell 
of  himself.  When  a  tutor  he  went  to  the  president  of 
the  institution,  and  rather  boastfully  told  how  he  had 
flunked  out  fifty  per  cent  of  his  freshman  class  in 
mathematics.  The  president  said  to  him  in  reply :  "  If 
I  had  hired  you  to  drive  one  hundred  sheep  to  Omaha, 
and  you  came  back  and  boasted,  in  such  a  self-com- 
placent spirit,  that  you  had  lost  fifty  by  the  way,  do  you 
think  that  I  would  give  you  another  hundred  sheep  to 
drive  to  Omaha  next  year?  This  present  college  year 
is  not  yet  ended  and  another  year  is  before  us!"  The 
younger  man  says  that  he  dates  his  pedagogical  educa- 
tion from  that  conversation,  and  from  the  chastening  of 
his  spirit  which  came  from  this  practical  application  of 
business  principles  to  college  instruction  and  affairs. 

In  other  words,  the  marking  system  should  be  con- 
sidered in  the  light  of  an  affirmative  help  in  aiding  a 
student  to  find  himself  and  to  train  himself  for  efficient 
citizenship,  rather  than  as  a  means  of  flunking  him  out 
of  college,  or  even  as  a  means  to  test  his  rank  therein,  or 
to  frighten  him  into  doing  better  work ;  as  an  aid  to  the 
college  in  doing  its  duty  to  the  state  rather  than  a  means 


254  The  Reorganization  o)  Our  Colleges 

to  reduce  the  numbers  in  a  freshman  class  admitted  with- 
out any  proper  selection  or  limitations,  and  which  over- 
taxes the  capacity  of  the  institution. 

Admittedly,  such  a  marking  system  as  that  outlined 
above  cannot  be  successfully  used  under  present  college 
conditions,  where  each  instructor  has  classes  numbering 
from  forty  to  a  hundred.  But  pray  what  is  there  in  the 
present  college  conditions,  judged  by  their  results  and 
the  size  of  the  college  waste  heap,  which  would  justify 
us  in  giving  them  much  consideration?  Present  college 
administrative  and  student  life  methods  must  in  large 
part  be  dropped  and  new  ones  substituted.  In  the  re- 
organized college  the  ideals  will  be  so  changed,  and  the 
new  marking  system  so  necessary  in  enabling  us  to  work 
out  these  ideals,  that  we  shall  willingly  reduce  our 
classes  to  twenty,  fifteen  or  even  ten  if  needed  to  bring 
out  the  best  which  is  in  the  teacher  and  transmit  it  to 
the  pupil  under  the  most  favorable  conditions.  We 
shall  then  be  thinking  of  the  student's  future  achieve- 
ments and  not  of  his  marks  or  diploma;  of  the  reciprocal 
joy  of  teaching  and  being  taught;  of  the  fair  fame  of 
Alma  Mater,  and  of  her  duty  as  a  nourishing  mother  of 
forceful  and  completely  equipped  citizens;  and  we  shall 
make  every  minor  end  bend  to  these  greater  ones — even 
as  we  do  now  on  the  football  field.  The  colleges  and 
universities  cannot  hope  to  be  real  leaders  of  the  com- 
monwealth while  they  are  so  far  behind  the  great  busi- 
ness corporations  in  ideals  and  methods,  and  while  they 
take  such  pride  in  losing  fifty  per  cent  of  their  sheep  on 
the  way  to  the  great  market  place  where  the  country  is 
waiting  for  them  and  needs  them. 


The  Marking  System  255 

If  there  is  to  be  a  revised  and  comprehensive  marking 
system,  let  it  also  be  used  to  promote  a  healthy  rivalry 
within  the  college  itself  and  between  allied  institutions 
in  all  parts  of  which  a  similar  system  shall  be  in  force. 
Let  such  a  method  be  used  to  demonstrate  which  de- 
partment is  doing  the  best  work  for  citizenship — phys- 
ics or  chemistry;  the  ancient  or  the  modern  languages; 
literature  or  history.  Moreover,  there  are  triangular  or 
other  leagues  for  intercollegiate  athletics  which  are  re- 
organized as  the  just  and  fair  grouping  of  institutions 
which  have  about  the  same  local  surroundings  and 
about  the  same  number  of  students.  These  natural 
rivals  might  well  compete  on  higher  intellectual  and 
educational  levels,  and  generously  collaborate  over  their 
common  problems  of  the  college  marking  system  and 
waste  pile,  and  of  administrative  methods  and  results. 
But  if  this  is  to  be  at  all  successful,  these  matters  in 
which  there  is  rivalry  must  be  largely  standardized. 
Football  and  other  intercollegiate  athletic  contests  are 
possible  upon  a  large  scale  only  because  they  take  place 
under  absolutely  identical  rules,  under  which  there  can 
be  true  rivalry,  yet  full  play  for  individuality.  This  en- 
lightened rivalry  and  competition  would  make  all  work, 
within  and  without  the  college  walls,  more  interesting 
and  inspiring.  Fair  and  intelligent  competition  is  the 
life,  not  only  of  trade,  but  of  a  popular  education  for  all, 
such  as  we  are  attempting  to  give  in  this  country.  But 
fair  competition  implies  similar  standards  of  measure- 
ment. Hence  the  educational  and  administrative  de- 
partments of  our  reorganized  colleges  will  seek  for  the 
true  standardizing  of  their  marking  and  other  systems 


256          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

of  measurement,  so  that  there  may  be,  not  only  compe- 
tition, but  intelligent  and  uplifting  correlation  and  com- 
parison. 

The  new  marking  system,  if  thoroughly  understood 
by  the  pupil,  ought  to  develop  in  him  that  quality  and 
sense  which  the  good  teacher  so  longs  for  and  seeks  to 
inspire — the  sense  of  individual  and  personal  responsi- 
bility in  the  pupil,  which  attunes  him  to  the  soul  of  the 
instructor  and  breeds  eagerness  to  learn;  which  inspires 
teacher  and  taught,  turns  the  task  into  a  pleasure,  fos- 
ters true  culture  and  scholarship,  gives  real  individual 
training  and  fits  for  the  largest  usefulness  in  the  future. 

This  is  the  training  for  life  which  the  college  should 
aim  at.  In  so  far  as  it  does  not  give  it,  it  fails  in  its  duty 
to  the  state  and  to  the  individual. 

But,  dear  pedagogue,  you  will  never  fully  reach  this 
goal  until  you  turn  your  two  dead  departments  of  ad- 
ministration and  student  life  over  to  other  hands  and 
give  your  attention  to  pure  pedagogy.  Unload  all  these 
extraneous  things  and  commit  them  to  the  care  of  ex- 
perts in  those  lines;  avail  yourself  of  the  experience  of 
your  business  alumni,  and  devote  yourself,  as  never  be- 
fore, to  your  own  specialty  in  which  you  can  never  yet 
have  done  your  best  work ;  for  never  yet  have  you  had 
the  benefit  of  the  trained  "interference"  of  a  well-con- 
ducted and  coordinate  college  administrative  depart- 
ment and  the  help  of  a  well-ordered  student  life.  Pray 
that  that  time  may  soon  come,  and  hasten  it  on  in  every 
way.  Do  not  oppose  it,  but  rather  demand  it  as  your 
right,  and  as  something  to  which  you  are  entitled  under 
modern  business  methods,  which  have  as  their  one 


The  Marking  System  257 

great  object  that  the  producers  shall  be  provided  with 
the  best  available  material,  machinery  and  service  sur- 
roundings, to  the  end  that  they  may  turn  out  the  very 
best  possible  work — not  in  quantity  so  much  as  in 
quality — of  which  they  as  individuals  are  capable. 
Have  you  never  dreamed  of  what  heights  of  accomplish- 
ment in  acquiring  and  imparting  knowledge  you  could 
reach  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  or  of 
what  good  original  work  you  were  capable?  It  will  be 
a  long  and  weary  task  to  undo  all  past  mistakes  and 
make  real  progress  on  the  new  road,  and  possibly  you 
are  too  old  to  see  ideal  conditions  prevail  in  your  own 
day;  but  for  the  sake  of  the  rising  generations  of  teachers 
and  taught,  do  what  you  can  to  inaugurate  and  set  for- 
ward this  auspicious  change.  You  have  been  the  vic- 
tim of  a  vicious  system  or  lack  of  system.  Help  to  cut 
the  Gordian  knot  for  your  successors.  You  cannot  do 
so  more  effectively  than  by  the  formulation  and  wide  and 
intelligent  adoption  of  a  standardized  and  modern  mark- 
ing system  which  will  give  a  few  of  the  advantages  of  the 
cost  system  found  in  every  up-to-date  factory. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

STUDYING  THE   COLLEGE  WASTE  HEAP 

MANY  business  alumni  would  like  nothing  better  than 
the  time  and  opportunity  to  work  over  and  study  our 
college  waste  heaps,  both  so  far  as  they  relate  to  the 
losses  among  students  and  teachers.  It  would  be  a 
delicate  task,  requiring  the  greatest  tact  and  wisdom. 
In  the  new  administrative  department,  the  waste- heap 
bureau  will  be  the  place  of  highest  honor  and  of  surest 
reward. 

College  methods  have  often  been  so  crass  and  un- 
scientific that  sometimes  their  student  waste  heaps  about 
equal  in  size  their  so-called  finished  product;  and  fifty 
per  cent  of  this  latter  would  be  scrapped  in  a  well-run 
factory — not  stamped  with  its  trade  name  and  sent  out 
as  a  fair  sample  of  its  finished  product.  Surely  the  col- 
leges ought  to  have  some  ideals  in  the  treatment  of  their 
waste  heap  and  by-products,  which  would  approach  to 
an  approximation  of  those  of  thousands  of  business  cor- 
porations of  our  land.  The  Standard  Oil  Company 
could  teach  the  colleges  hundreds  of  points  in  which 
they  could  improve  their  administration,  and  especially 
how  they  could  study  and  reduce  their  waste  products. 
Nothing  could  seem  more  unpromising  than  crude  pe- 
troleum, yet  under  proper  study  and  the  supervision  of 

258 


Studying  the  College  Waste  Heap  259 

an  administrative  department  it  has  been  made  to  yield 
more  than  200  by-products. 

One  large  manufacturing  concern  has  a  magnificently 
organized  corps  of  150  chemists  who  daily  collaborate 
and  compare  their  work  upon  by-products  and  new 
products. 

On  the  students7  side  the  college  waste  pile  is  made 
up,  in  a  broad  sense,  of  those  men  who  have  not  gotten 
all  of  the  training  and  development,  mental,  moral  and 
physical,  of  an  education  for  citizenship  which  the  in- 
stitution might  and  should  have  given  them;  who  have 
fallen  short  of  what  they  had  the  ability  to  become, 
judged  not  by  the  present  college  marking  system,  but 
by  the  larger  test  of  their  fitness  for  the  best  life's  work 
for  which  they  might  have  been  trained.  It  is  a  sad 
commentary  on  some  college  authorities  that  they  will 
think  this  a  harsh  and  impossible  rule  to  apply  in  their 
factory,  but  it  is  a  just  rule  which  is  sternly  enforced  in 
every  other  great  factory.  When  the  administrative 
and  student  life  departments  have  been  resurrected  and 
restored  to  their  proper  places  in  the  college  economy, 
the  present  objectors  will  be  the  first  to  acknowledge 
their  mistake,  to  admit  that  they  could  not  have  ex- 
pected to  do  their  best  work  as  instructors  under 
present  conditions,  and  much  less  in  addition  to  do  well 
the  work  of  two  other  coordinate  but  essentially  dis- 
tinct college  departments,  which  were  ready  and  anxious 
to  do  their  part,  if  the  instructors  would  but  consider  the 
matter  in  a  common-sense  way  and  not  attempt  to  do 
their  own  and  the  others'  share. 

But  in  a  much  narrower  and  less  true  sense,  the  col- 


26o          The  Reorganization  0}  Our  Colleges 

lege  waste  pile  is  in  part  made  up  of  those  students  who 
have  not  completed  their  college  course,  or  who  have 
made  a  self-evident  failure  in  their  life's  work  because 
of  unfortunate  conditions  in  college. 

It  begs  the  question  to  say  that  these  men  are  better 
for  having  had  some  taste  of  a  college  life  even  if  they 
did  not  finish  their  course.  This  may  or  may  not  be 
true.  They  might  have  profited  quite  as  much  if  this 
time  had  been  spent  elsewhere.  The  real  question  is, 
Did  the  college  do  its  full  duty  for  citizenship  upon 
these  men,  and  fully  exert  upon  them  the  power  to  that 
end  which  the  commonwealth,  the  parents,  the  students 
and  the  community  had  a  right  to  demand  of  so  richly 
endowed  a  public  servant?  Shall  we  insist  that  our 
street  railroads  shall  give  transfers  and  mulct  them 
heavily  for  not  doing  so,  and  not  demand  an  equally 
punctilious  fulfillment  by  the  colleges  of  their  far  higher 
duties? 

It  has  been  said  that  a  well-to-do  college-educated 
man  represents  a  direct  and  indirect  cash  investment  of 
about  $25,000  before  he  is  able  to  support  himself. 
What  an  upheaval,  investigation  and  reform  there  would 
be  in  a  well-ordered  factory  if  but  a  few  $25  machines 
produced  by  it  were  failures,  and  would  not  work  satis- 
factorily, and  were  returned  by  dissatisfied  customers. 
Yet  apparently  no  college  has  thought  of  intelligently 
studying  its  $25,000  failures,  or  even  of  introducing  a 
comprehensive  set  of  blanks  or  marking  system  which 
would  lay  the  foundation  for  such  a  study.  Many  in- 
stitutions graduate  only  fifty  per  cent  of  those  who  enter. 
The  careful  manufacturer  would  say  that  such  a  loss 


Studying  the  College  Waste  Heap  261 

must  be  charged  either  to  the  productive  or  the  admin- 
istrative department.  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to 
where  this  loss  must  now  be  charged  in  the  colleges — 
for  as  yet  they  have  no  separate  administrative  depart- 
ment. Hence  the  loss  must  be  charged  directly  to  that 
department  which  still  insists  upon  exercising  and  con- 
trolling the  administrative  functions  of  the  institution. 
Pedagogic  administration  is  chargeable  with  a  pretty 
heavy  loss  when  it  delivers  in  a  completed  state  only 
fifty  per  cent  of  the  splendid  raw  material  annually  com- 
mitted to  its  care,  and  much  of  this  fifty  per  cent  is  not 
in  the  best  marketable  condition! 

To  the  college  waste  heap  must  also  be  added  every 
tutor  and  professor  whose  earlier  high  ideals  and  prom- 
ise for  original  research  and  fruitful  teaching  have  been 
killed  out  by  the  drudgery  and  misapprehension  en- 
tailed by  a  lack  of  an  up-to-date  administrative  depart- 
ment. The  misfit  teachers,  who  could  have  done  fine 
work  under  different  surroundings,  must  also  swell  the 
pile;  and  possibly  also  the  alumni  who  could  and  would 
have  done  good  work  for  Alma  Mater  if  she  had  had  a 
wise  administrative  department,  which  had  charted  all 
her  weak  spots  and  was  looking  for  the  right  man  with 
whom  to  strengthen  them. 

A  proper  study  of  the  college  waste  pile  would  pro- 
vide for  working  over  the  past,  not  so  much  with  the 
hope  of  rescuing  much  available  material,  but  rather 
to  obtain  data  for  future  guidance  and  to  enable  us  to 
analyze  and  minimize  our  future  failures.  But  our  best 
results  must  come  from  present  work  on  present  ma- 
terial, along  wise  and  far-reaching  lines,  trusting  that 


262  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

each  year  these  lines  will  broaden  before  us.  If  each 
year  does  not  show  better  methods,  higher  ideals  and 
a  smaller  waste  heap  than  ever  before — a  larger  per- 
centage of  the  sheep  delivered  at  market,  and  in  a  better 
condition  for  that  particular  market  at  that  particular 
time — we  may  rest  assured  that  our  study  is  upon 
wrong  lines  or  with  the  wrong  human  agents,  and  that 
there  must  be  a  change;  for  good  results  always  follow 
a  proper  study  of  waste  heaps  and  by-products. 

An  earnest  endeavor  to  redeem  the  waste  of  a  busi- 
ness necessarily  implies  a  careful  scrutiny  of  every  part 
of  that  business  and  a  willingness  to  follow  where  such 
quest  legitimately  leads.  Therefore  we  shall,  first,  sub- 
mit our  entering  material  to  a  careful  test,  and  constantly 
seek  to  improve  its  character  before  we  undertake  to 
treat  it;  second,  unceasingly  and  sternly  test  and  im- 
prove our  own  subsequent  methods  with  and  treatment 
of  that  material;  third,  bend  every  energy  to  make  sure 
that  all  external  and  internal  agencies  work  to  the  good 
of  our  students,  fostering  those  which  are  advantageous 
and  counteracting  those  which  are  adverse;  fourth, 
keep  a  comprehensive  record  and  marking  system  of 
every  student  and  of  all  the  larger  and  smaller  details 
of  the  college,  and  constantly  compare  and  use  these; 
and,  fifth,  so  far  as  possible,  insure  that  our  graduates 
"catch  on"  after  college,  and  have  a  fair  opportunity 
to  make  the  best  use  of  the  training  which  we  have 
given  them. 

We  shall  aim  to  know  whether  the  cause  of  a  failure 
lies  in  the  parents'  home,  or  the  earlier  schooling  or  the 
college;  and  if  in  the  latter,  in  which  of  its  planes  or 


Studying  the  College  Waste  Heap  263 

courses.  This  knowledge  must  become  more  and  more 
precise  each  year  as  we  study  and  classify  our  waste 
heap,  and  the  methods  of  the  colleges  must  be  stand- 
ardized so  that  this  studying  may  be  fruitful  of  results. 

There  is  enough  in  this  programme  to  engage  the  at- 
tention of  the  most  important  bureau  in  the  new  admin- 
istrative department,  which  must  be  headed  by  the  best 
men,  and  be  given  every  means  necessary  to  apply  and 
test  its  rules. 

We  shall  soon  come  to  value  our  great  institutions,  not 
so  much  by  their  buildings,  or  the  amount  of  their  funds, 
or  by  their  past  good  work  and  reputation,  or  by  their 
size,  or  by  the  number  of  their  courses  or  electives,  as  by 
the  relative  smallness  of  their  waste  piles;  by  their  ad- 
mitted failures  rather  than  by  their  presumed  successes 
on  the  diploma  basis. 

And  let  us  trust  that  in  the  future  there  may  be  set  up 
some  governmental  bureau  or  agency,  with  power  to  re- 
quire each  institution  of  higher  learning  to  submit  item- 
ized annual  reports,  thoroughly  standardized  and  of  the 
most  searching  and  comprehensive  character,  whereby 
parents  and  students  and  the  public  may  judge  of  the 
relative  merits  of  the  various  institutions  and  the  size  of 
their  waste  heaps;  and  whereby  the  institutions  them- 
selves may  check  off,  compare  and  constantly  and  in- 
telligently improve  their  own  methods  and  results.  If 
the  United  States  Department  of  Education  were  au- 
thorized to  require  of  the  colleges  one-tenth  part  of  the 
detailed  information  which  the  Division  of  Statistics  and 
Accounts  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  de- 
mands of  the  railroads,  it  would  soon  work  a  revolution 


264          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

in  college  methods,  and  make  the  waste  pile  almost  a 
negligible  quantity;  and  at  the  end  of  a  decade  everyone 
would  be  amazed  at  the  improved  condition  of  educa- 
tion throughout  the  country,  and  no  one  would  be  will- 
ing to  do  away  with  the  new  methods  and  requirements 
or  go  back  to  the  old.  If  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission can  require  the  railroads  to  spend  annually 
millions  of  dollars,  to  the  end  that  their  exact  physical 
and  financial  conditions  and  results  can  be  accurately 
exhibited  before  those  who  are  interested  to  know  about 
these  things,  why  should  we  not  at  least  strive  toward 
some  such  goal  with  regard  to  the  college  youth  of  our 
land? 

Why  should  not  the  general  government  and  the  states 
and  municipalities,  which  have  given  and  are  giving, 
directly  and  indirectly,  such  enormous  endowments, 
subsidies  and  special  privileges  to  these  favored  public 
servants,  and  which  are  spending  annually  such  huge 
amounts  in  preparing  students  for  the  colleges  without 
expense  to  the  latter,  demand  a  strict  annual  accounting 
in  standardized  forms  of  reports  which  the  wayfaring 
man,  though  only  the  father  of  a  college  undergraduate, 
may  read?  Why  should  not  such  privileged  public 
servants  eagerly  demand  that  they  shall  be  given  the 
opportunity  to  prove  their  leadership  in  all  which  tends 
for  the  good  of  the  commonwealth,  by  being  required  to 
make  a  more  comprehensive  and  comprehensible  annual 
report  than  any  other  public  corporation?  When  such 
a  time  arrives,  a  college  education  will  be  of  greater 
economic  value  because  it  will  mean  more  to  all  con- 
cerned. 


Studying  the  College  Waste  Heap  265 

The  tests  and  methods  applied  to  our  great  railroads 
ought  not  to  be  too  good  to  be  applied  to  our  colleges, 
which  are  presumed  to  be  training  our  future  citizens 
and  problem  solvers,  and  which  may  and  must  mold  the 
course  of  our  future  history.  Certainly  we  ought  not  to 
be  too  proud  to  go  to  experienced  railroad  and  corpo- 
rate reorganizes,  many  of  whom  are  college  men,  for 
help  in  solving  the  administrative  problems  of  our  col- 
leges and  in  reducing  their  waste  piles.  Possibly  the 
learned  professor  of  economics,  who  is  in  charge  of  the 
statistics  and  accounts  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission, could  point  out  the  value  to  our  colleges  of  an 
exhaustive  charting  of  their  mistakes  and  shortcomings 
by  means  of  a  proper  system  of  accounts,  and  could  at 
least  assist  in  the  preparation  of  such  a  set  of  blanks, 
and  could  do  as  good  work  in  standardizing  college 
methods  as  he  has  in  railroading. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

EXAMINATIONS   IN  THE  REORGANIZED  COLLEGE 

THE  ordinary  college  examinations  have  degenerated 
into  senseless  adjuncts  to  an  archaic  marking  system, 
where  they  serve  as  a  bugaboo  and  measuring  rod.  A 
higher  use  is  set  out  in  the  following  quotation  from  Dr. 
Canfield's  report,  already  referred  to: 

"  There  seems  to  be  a  clear  understanding,  in  both  Eng- 
land and  France,  that  an  examination  should  test  both  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge  and  the  ability  to  use  knowledge; 
or  both  knowledge  and  power.  To  these  two  characteris- 
tics many  instructors  add  a  third — promise.  It  is  very  gen- 
erally admitted  that  the  first  characteristic  predominates,  if 
it  does  not  dominate,  the  work  of  pupils  up  to  sixteen  years 
of  age;  that  the  second  is  increasingly  recognized  through 
the  years  of  college  life;  and  that  the  third  leads  in  all 
graduate  work.  It  is  also  clearly  understood  that  every 
examination  will  show  something  of  each  quality,  and  that 
every  examination  is  quite  as  much  a  test  of  the  teacher  as 
of  the  pupil  or  student.  With  much  lamentation  it  is  quite 
freely  admitted  that  few  examinations  establish  much,  if  any, 
test  of  either  power  or  promise,  but  are  perfunctory  and 
mechanical  tests  of  acquisition  of  knowledge,  of  the  existence 
of  knowledge,  of  mere  memory;  and  that  the  reason  for  this 
is  to  be  found  in  the  indolence  and  ignorance  of  instructors, 
both  those  of  the  college  and  university  and  of  the  secondary 
school:  ignorance,  because  so  few  instructors  are  willing  to 
make  any  study  of  methods,  of  any  part  of  either  the  history 
or  psychology  of  education;  indolence,  because  it  is  so  much 
easier  to  use  old  formulas  than  to  study  the  boy  and  his 
work,  and  set  an  examination  the  result  of  which  will  really 

266 


Examinations  267 

add  to  the  teacher's  knowledge  of  both,  and  be  a  stimulus 
to  the  pupil  in  all  future  endeavor. 

"For  every  examination  either  stimulates  or  stultifies;  the 
intellect  is  either  better  or  worse  because  of  what  it  has  en- 
countered; either  the  whole  man  has  been  quickened  into 
new  life  by  what  ought  to  be  a  sudden  and  unexpected 
emergency  which  the  student  must  meet  and  master,  or  he 
has  become  more  sodden  and  helpless  because  of  renewed 
manifestations  of  lifelessness  on  the  part  of  the  instructor. 
Because  of  this  very  positive  power  for  either  good  or  evil, 
the  examination  should  be  most  carefully  studied,  most  thor- 
oughly understood,  and  above  all  most  wisely  and  thoroughly 
supervised.  .  .  .  Sooner  or  later,  every  man  must  face  an 
emergency,  must  meet  a  crisis  which,  swift  and  unexpected  in 
its  coming,  calls  for  sharp  concentration  of  all  his  faculties 
and  powers,  for  supreme  and  continuous  effort  till  the  victory 
is  won.  Examinations  which  are  without  notice,  and  which 
do  not  come  at  stated  intervals,  train  men  in  this  mental 
self-control  and  alertness,  in  this  swift  marshalling  of  all 
forces,  with  an  irresistible  forward  movement,  a  rush  to  the 
front  of  horse,  foot  and  field  guns.  With  such  examinations, 
stimulating  in  the  highest  degree,  a  true  master  in  educa- 
tion, if  not  overburdened  with  students,  can  determine  the 
success  of  his  students  without  formal  'finals'  or  any  me- 
chanical gage." 

Dean  R.  C.  Bentley,  of  Clark  College,  says  of  exam- 
inations in  connection  with  the  marking  system: 

"A  single  illustration  will  show  the  ridiculous  inade- 
quacy of  our  present  'marking,'  even  to  distinguish  types 
of  mind  not  to  say  individual  powers.  If  the  college  has  a 
right  to  demand  anything  in  student  mind,  it  is  the  stage 
at  which  some  thinking  of  a  mature  sort  may  be  expected. 
The  demands  of  college  studentship  may  not  be  considered  to 
be  satisfied  with  anything  less  than  an  assimilation  by  which 
there  may  be  exhibited  actual  mental  energy,  generated  by 
one's  own  mental  machinery.  Shall  we  be  surprised  to 
find  that  a  high  mark  is  used  to  represent  the  brilliant  work 
of  a  superficial  man?  There  is  too  likely  to  be  a  high  mark 


268          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

of  approval  for  the  student  who  returns  intact,  upon  exam- 
ination, just  what  he  got  from  his  instructor.  Oh  for  a 
race  of  teachers  free  to  say:  'Thou  unprofitable  miser  of 
the  scraps  of  others'  ready  made  wisdom,  preserved  in  the 
folded  napkin  of  a  complacent  mind  against  examination 
day;  thou  oughtest  to  have  so  invested  as  to  show  at  least 
the  legal  rate  of  interest ! ' 

"Any  machinery  of  marks  that  makes  it  unnecessary  for  a 
teacher,  as  the  most  important  part  of  his  functions,  to  dis- 
tinguish, not  only  such  two  types  of  mind,  but  individual 
differences  of  mind,  decreases  his  chance  to  do  real  teaching 
and  loads  the  balances  for  false  weighing." 

Examinations  in  their  present  sense  and  use  may  even 
disappear  in  our  reorganized  college  because  they  will 
be  as  unnecessary  and  useless  as  in  the  case  of  the  faith- 
ful clerk  in  a  business  office.  If  through  an  ideal  col- 
lege administrative  system  a  close  touch  between  master 
and  pupil  can  be  established,  promotion  will  come  from 
faithful  work,  not  from  cramming  and  cribbing.  Im- 
proved instruction  will  contribute  a  small  fraction  to- 
ward this  result,  but  improved  administration  the  major 
part,  because  it  will  make  instruction  more  effective  and 
rewarding.  Final  examinations  will  come  to  be  recog- 
nized as  an  undesirable  evil,  not  as  a  necessary  end,  and 
will  be  dispensed  with  so  far  as  possible.  If  they  are 
used  at  all,  it  will  be  rather  as  a  climax  for  the  pupil  but 
as  a  test  for  the  teacher,  in  which  both  teacher  and 
taught  will  be  equally  interested  in  ascertaining  if  the 
pupil  has  made  good.  Everyone  knows  that  the  final 
football  games  are  a  test  for  the  coach  and  his  methods 
and  work,  but  the  climax  of  the  season  for  the  players. 
The  coach  is  paid  for  his  services,  but  the  team,  with  no 
pecuniary  reward,  work  toward  the  great  climax  for 


Examinations  269 

Alma  Mater's  glory.  The  coach  is  not  trying  to  see 
what  low  marks  he  can  award  for  slovenly  term  work, 
to  be  supplemented  by  cramming  and  a  final  examina- 
tion, but  rather  is  striving  to  teach  the  fine  points  of  the 
game,  even  to  the  scrub,  so  that  at  the  end  there  may  be 
no  failure.  The  reorganized  college  will  have  this  same 
spirit,  for  it  is  the  spirit  of  a  well-organized  office  or 
business.  There  the  test  is  not  that  of  a  lying  marking 
system  supplemented  by  more  unreliable  examinations, 
but  that  of  a  general  and  actual  growth  of  the  individual, 
so  as  to  rise  to  higher  and  higher  planes  and  cope  suc- 
cessfully with  greater  and  greater  responsibilities. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

DISCIPLINE   IN  THE   REORGANIZED  COLLEGE 

DISCIPLINE,  according  to  the  notions  of  the  earlier 
college,  has  substantially  disappeared  in  modern  times. 
Disorder  in  the  class  room  is  now  practically  unknown 
and  would  be  entirely  so  if  the  classes  were  of  the  proper 
size.  Any  attempt  to  regulate  the  manners  and  habits 
of  the  college  home  has  to  all  intents  and  purposes  been 
abandoned  in  our  quasi  state.  It  is  now  the  office  of 
our  colleges  to  train  their  students  in  their  duties  as 
citizens,  and  to  teach  them  to  govern  themselves,  as  al- 
ready indicated. 

Under  a  well-conducted  college  administrative  de- 
partment, disciplinary  measures  will  become  a  negligible 
quantity.  The  distinction  between  instruction  and  the 
college  home  life  will  be  clearly  thought  out  and  main- 
tained. Any  disorders  in  the  class  room  will  be  almost 
unthinkable,  while  those  in  the  student  life  will  be  dealt 
with  under  rules  which  apply  to  that  department,  and 
not  to  the  pedagogical  and  administrative  departments. 

The  rules  governing  conduct  in  the  instructional  de- 
partment will  be  few,  well  advertised  and  clearly  under- 
stood, with  well-defined  penalties.  The  punishment 
will  be  made  to  fit  the  crime. 

At  present  college  discipline  reminds  one  forcibly  of 
the  story  told  by  the  head  master  of  one  of  our  great 

270 


Discipline  271 

preparatory  schools.  A  small  boy  had  been  called  be- 
fore him  and,  under  strict  cross-examination,  was  grad- 
ually disclosing  a  fearful  laxity  of  discipline  and  dearth 
of  good  work  in  one  of  the  houses,  until  finally  the  little 
fellow  blubbered  out:  "  But  how  was  I  to  know  that  the 
teacher  would  draw  the  line  at  my  dropping  a  live  mouse 
down  the  back  of  his  neck?" 

Nowadays  college  discipline  is  frequently,  for  months 
or  years,  more  honored  in  the  breach  than  in  the  ob- 
servance, and  then  suddenly  the  faculty  find  it  neces- 
sary to  save  their  face  by  making  an  example  of  some 
particular  student  who  has  been  doing  that  which  the 
faculty  has  winked  at  in  numerous  other  instances. 
They  arbitrarily  draw  the  line  at  the  live  mouse. 

Oftentimes  the  general  tone  of  a  college  is  poor  and 
the  discipline  lax,  until  the  students  come  to  feel,  quite 
naturally,  that  they  have  a  kind  of  preemptive  right  in 
their  privileges  which  have  existed  from  time  imme- 
morial, or  in  an  ordinary  college  for  over  four  years. 
Suddenly,  without  warning,  the  autocratic  power  of 
the  college  is  invoked,  and  a  custom  arbitrarily  swept 
aside  which  had  seemed  to  the  students  to  be  among 
their  vested  rights.  This  course  engenders  a  spirit  of 
anger  and  revolt.  A  small  amount  of  forethought  in  dis- 
cussing matters  with  the  undergraduates  would  have 
brought  almost  a  cheerful  acquiescence  upon  the  part 
of  the  student  body.  Conditions  which  appear  easy  in 
business  are  often  considered  as  oppressive  in  college, 
because  therein  they  are  autocratically  imposed  and 
enforced  by  the  institution  instead  of  being  assumed 
by  the  student  body,  as  might  be  easily  brought  about. 


272  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

A  lawyer  appreciates  that  human  justice  is  very  hu- 
man, and  a  thoughtful  observer  sometimes  feels  that 
this  is  truest  of  college  justice.  A  wise  and  proper  ad- 
ministrative department  will  practically  eliminate  all 
need  of  discipline  and  not  glory  in  the  sudden  revival 
of  dead-letter  laws  or  the  enactment  of  blue  laws,  ap- 
plied "  steady  by  jerks." 

Fair  notice  will  be  given  of  change  of  rules  and  regu- 
lations, and  the  earnest  cooperation  of  the  students  will 
be  insured  through  a  full  realization  of  plans  and  pur- 
poses, and  by  the  concurrent  effort  of  dominant  influ- 
ences among  the  students — that  is,  in  the  student  life 
department.  Student  sentiment  is  justly  outraged  by 
many  cases  of  flagrant  injustice,  such  as  is  set  forth 
in  the  following  letter  from  a  well-known  New  York 
lawyer: 

"I  have  a  son  just  graduated  from  college.  He  was  de- 
barred from  strenuous  athletics  by  his  physique.  He  is  a 
good  student,  above  the  average,  for  he  passed  the  best 
entrance  examination  of  all  applicants  in  1903,  and  yet,  so 
far  as  I  can  judge,  he  is  not  thought  of  as  he  would  be  if  he 
had  high  athletic  standing — either  by  the  institution  or  his 
college  mates.  He  was  not  individualized  but  simply  one 
of  a  mass,  and  taught,  marked,  heard  and  considered  as 
such.  I  do  not  mean  to  be  understood  as  complaining  be- 
cause he  is  my  son.  I  refer  to  him  simply  as  a  case  fit  for 
illustration,  because  it  is  the  one  I  know  of.  My  son  did 
not  take  honors  on  graduation,  because — it  is  almost  too 
absurd  to  be  credible — in  the  sophomore  year,  although  he 
had  nearly  all  A's  and  only  one  or  two  B's  in  his  subjects, 
he  had  F  in  Gymnastics,  and  he  received  F  because  he  had 
overcut  two  half  hours  at  the  gymnasium.  He  did  not 
know  it,  was  not  notified,  and  hence  did  not  make  them 
up,  as  he  easily  could  have  done.  His  class  was  the  first 
when  overcuts  in  Gym.  were  considered  as  data  in  making 


Discipline  273 

up  honors.  So  his  honors  were  gone  irretrievably,  for,  no 
matter  how  high  his  marks  would  have  been  in  Junior  and 
Senior  years,  he  could  not  get  Final  Honors.  His  ambitio  is 
were,  therefore,  blunted;  and  he  lost  his  incentive.  It  seemed 
and  still  seems  unjust  to  him  and  a  reflection  on  the  college 
system." 

This  is  an  example  of  the  vices  of  the  autocratic  system 
of  the  college,  which  has  many  of  the  faults  of  any  auto- 
cratic regime.  It  has  the  student  largely  in  its  power, 
for  he  has  made  his  investment  of  tuition,  and  furniture, 
and  time  spent  along  its  fixed  curriculum,  which  prob- 
ably will  not  be  applicable  in  another  institution  and 
hence  will  be  wasted  if  he  withdraws.  The  college 
knows  its  power,  and  often  uses  it  foolishly  and  un- 
fairly. Under  like  circumstances  no  merchant  would 
say  to  a  clerk  who  had  made  some  foolish,  and  probably 
boyish  and  pardonable,  error:  "You  are  in  my  power, 
for  I  have  such  a  hold  upon  you  that  you  must  submit 
when  I  fine  you  two  months'  pay,  or  decree  that  you 
must  work  without  extra  pay  three  hours  overtime  every 
day  for  three  months."  On  the  contrary,  the  mer- 
chant says:  "You  are  of  full  age  and  understanding. 
Either  fill  your  position  to  the  very  best  of  your  ability 
and  work  for  the  general  good,  or  resign."  No  ship 
ever  yawed  more  than  does  college  pedagogy  when  it 
essays  to  steer  the  discipline  of  a  modern  institution  of 
higher  learning.  Faculty  control  of  discipline  in  our 
modern  institutions  is  inherently  wrong  and  certain 
to  be  a  snare  and  a  failure.  It  entirely  lacks  the  per- 
sonal acquaintance  with  general  and  individual  condi- 
tions which  made  faculty  control  partially  successful 
in  earlier  days. 


274  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

Undoubtedly,  the  college  has  certain  rights  and 
powers  over  its  students,  but  they  are  far  less  than  in 
the  old  boarding-school  colleges,  and  are  to  be  exercised 
in  far  different  manner  and  spirit  and  to  a  far  different 
end.  But  the  student  also  has  his  rights  which  his  pred- 
ecessors did  not  have,  and  which  should  be  respected 
by  the  college,  not  in  a  perfunctory,  haphazard  way,  as 
where  he  is  at  the  mercy  of  some  cross-grained  or  prej- 
udiced professor  who  can  cost  him  "his  incentive"  and 
leave  a  bitter  feeling  of  injustice  which  never  ceases  to 
rankle  in  his  breast.  Many  a  time  we  hear  college 
graduates  tell  of  what  they  feel  was  a  gross  injustice 
done  to  them  years  before  by  some  professor.  In  such 
instances  there  should  have  been  some  administrative 
power  guarding  Alma  Mater's  good  name  and  work, 
which  could  deal  out  even-handed  and  intelligent  jus- 
tice, or,  if  necessary,  separate  two  uncongenial  individ- 
uals who  never  could  or  would  get  on  together. 

The  separate  administrative  department  will  do  away 
with  all  star-chamber  methods.  It  will  reverse  the 
Puritanical  notion  that  discipline  of  the  young  is  for 
punishment,  and  will  adopt  the  modern  idea  that  it  is 
for  reform  and  moral  growth.  College  discipline  must 
necessarily  be  very  faulty  until  our  colleges,  and  es- 
pecially the  student  life  department,  are  properly  re- 
organized, and  then — it  will  practically  disappear. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

THE   WAITING   LIST   IN  THE   REORGANIZED   COLLEGE 

IN  at  least  some  reorganized  colleges  there  will  be  a 
waiting  list,  for  all  college  history  proves  that  good  work 
in  any  institution  draws  to  it  plenty — and  often  too 
much — of  the  best  student  material;  just  as  truly  as  suc- 
cessful intercollegiate  athletics  draw  driftwood,  which 
seldom  remains  more  than  a  year  or  two,  and  which 
serves  merely  to  clog  and  disarrange  the  machinery  for 
earnest  students,  and  thus  causes  deterioration  in  the  in- 
stitution's plant,  product  and  reputation.  Students  and 
parents  recognize  good  work  in  a  college.  They  are  not 
afraid  of  fair  restrictions  or  of  high  requirements.  They 
are  looking  for  individual  training  and  broad  prepara- 
tion for  citizenship,  and  the  college  which  gives  the  most 
and  best  of  these  will  draw  the  largest  number  of  the 
highest  grade  students.  This  plan  has  never  yet  been 
thoroughly  tested,  which  is  another  indication  of  the 
comparatively  low  level  of  our  college  ideals. 

The  waiting  list  will  consist  in  part  of  those  who  are 
registered  years  ahead;  and  in  these  cases  the  college  will 
have  an  opportunity  from  year  to  year  to  know  what 
kind  of  preparatory  work  each  applicant  is  doing,  and 
by  that  means  assist,  not  only  themselves  and  the  sub- 

275 


276  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

freshmen,  but  also  the  preparatory  schools  in  getting 
good  work  out  of  their  students.  The  administrative 
department  will  have  time  to  watch  carefully  such  can- 
didates and  their  yearly  progress,  and  to  select  the  best 
material  and  that  which  is  especially  adapted  to  the 
instruction  of  that  institution.  In  part  the  waiting  list 
will  consist  of  those  who  have  been  found  wanting  upon 
their  entrance  examinations  and  who  are  sent  back  for 
better  preparation.  The  reorganized  college  will  be  for 
honest  work,  with  a  well-selected  and  pretty  evenly 
matched  lot  of  students,  all  thoroughly  prepared,  and 
not  dragging  on  for  four  years  some  condition  which  un- 
fits both  professor  and  student  for  getting  the  best  re- 
sults out  of  the  college  course.  A  waiting  list  will  be  an 
eye-opener  to  both  college  and  preparatory  school  and 
bring  them  closer  together  upon  a  common-sense  under- 
standing of  the  sphere  of  each.  Meanwhile  the  sub- 
freshman  is  between  the  upper  and  the  nether  mill- 
stones to  an  extent  which  would  seem  to  a  merchant  or 
manufacturer  to  be  not  only  unnecessary  but  scandalous. 
Furthermore,  a  waiting  list  might  be  a  good  vantage 
ground  from  which  to  study  the  waste  pile  of  both  col- 
lege and  preparatory  school. 

Under  the  proposed  reorganization  most  institutions 
will  have  to  cut  down  their  entering  classes  from 
twenty-five  to  forty  per  cent,  but  they  will  graduate  as 
many  as  they  do  now.  There  is  to-day  no  fair  test  of 
the  real  capacity  and  efficiency  of  our  institutions  of 
higher  learning.  The  nearest  approximation  to  such  a 
test  is  the  size  of  their  graduating  classes,  and  not  that 
of  their  entering  classes.  Yet  the  colleges  always  brag 


The  Waiting  List  277 

about  large  entering  classes.  They  are  the  only  great 
factory  system  with  the  perverted  notion  that  an  over- 
supply  of  raw  material  and  a  correspondingly  large 
waste  pile  are  a  true  test  of  the  concern's  greatness. 
They  are  the  only  place  where  the  owners  consider  and 
boast  of  the  number  of  sheep  which  start  for  market, 
and  not  of  the  number  or  condition  of  those  which 
reach  there. 

This  falling  off  in  the  number  of  entering  freshmen 
will  at  first  appear  to  some  unthinking  alumni  to  be  a 
sign  of  decadence,  but  they  will  be  less  likely  to  feel 
thus  when  they  understand  that  there  is  an  insistent 
waiting  list,  for  this  will  indicate  that  the  institution  is 
held  in  even  higher  esteem  than  before,  and  thus  the 
allegiance  of  the  alumni  will  be  retained  and  possibly 
their  enthusiastic  support  be  gained. 

There  are  thousands  of  parents  to  whom  a  waiting 
list  would  appeal,  yet  who  cannot  understand  why  a 
college  should  consider  a  large  "busted  out"  list  as  any 
evidence  of  good  work  upon  its  part,  or  any  reason  why 
they  should  risk  the  future  of  their  sons  in  that  institu- 
tion. It  would  be  far  better  if  there  was  much  more 
discrimination  of  this  kind  upon  the  part  of  parents,  and 
if  they  combined  to  resist  the  tendency  of  the  colleges 
to  visit  their  own  shortcomings  upon  the  innocent  un- 
dergraduate and  future  citizen. 

Furthermore,  the  fact  that  many  of  the  men  thus 
"busted  out"  go  from  college  into  business  positions, 
and,  under  the  strict  and  wise  rules  there  prevailing, 
make  successes,  will  suggest  to  the  thoughtless  and  in- 
nocent that  many  colleges  ought  to  jack  their  adminis- 


278  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

trative  methods  and  ideals  up  to  the  plane  of  the  de- 
spised trusts  and  soulless  corporations. 

This  pride  in  a  large  "busted-out"  list  is  sometimes 
taken  to  imply  that  the  college  has  so  high  an  educa- 
tional standard  that  many  men  cannot  rise  to  the  level 
which  the  college  maintains  in  its  curriculum.  Yet  we 
find  that  many  of  those  who  ultimately  fail  were  the 
most  promising  students  in  the  high  schools  from  which 
they  entered,  and  that  they  have  failed  because  of  the 
perverted  conditions  prevailing  in  the  community  and 
home  life  of  the  college  student  body.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances how  can  the  institution  fully  perform  its 
chief  duty  to  the  commonwealth  of  turning  out  good 
citizens  and  at  the  same  time  have  a  large  "busted  out" 
list?1 

Frequently  freshmen  are  dropped  from  college  be- 
cause their  instructors  are  poor,  and  their  classes  too 
large,  and  other  pedagogical  conditions  are  thoroughly 
bad;  and  then  the  college  plumes  itself  upon  "its  high 
standard  of  scholarship!"  It  might  better  say  "its 
gross  inefficiency  and  hypocrisy,  and  its  fraud  upon  the 
commonwealth,  the  parents  and  the  students." 

In  connection  with  the  waiting  list  would  come  up  the 
whole  question  of  who  is  to  be  admitted  to  the  privileges 
of  this  quasi  public  corporation,  to  be  trained  therein 
for  citizenship.  The  present  prescribed  entrance  ex- 
aminations imperfectly  cover  a  single  side  of  but  one  of 
the  many  things  which  a  college  should  know  before  it 
takes  the  risk  of  spoiling  a  young  man's  life,  or  of  wast- 
ing its  own  time  and  disarranging  its  own  machinery  by 

1  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  pp.  182,  183. 


The  Waiting  List  279 

taking  in  an  improper  student.  The  present  system 
of  uniform  entrance  examinations  much  resembles  the 
equally  well-known  system  of  ready-made  clothing — 
well  adapted  to  the  physical  average  of  the  human 
male  or  female,  and  nothing  more.  An  ordinary  ready- 
made  garment  is  not  adapted  for  the  use  of  both  sexes, 
nor  does  it  fit  those  who  are  abnormally  lean  or  fat,  tall 
or  short,  or  otherwise  out  of  the  average.  Moreover, 
the  fit  of  the  garment  gives  us  no  criterion  by  which  we 
may  judge  as  to  whether  it  comes  within  the  means  or 
the  needs  of  the  buyer.  The  sixty-dollar  dress  suit  can- 
not be  made  to  take  the  place  of  the  laborer's  two- 
dollar  overalls  and  jumper.  Unless  distance  or  other 
conditions  make  it  impossible,  each  candidate  for  en- 
trance to  college  should  be  personally  examined  by 
some  wise  and  sympathetic  member  of  the  administra- 
tion, to  ascertain  whether  he  is  likely  to  find  himself  and 
become  a  hundred  per  cent  citizen  in  that  institution 
rather  than  in  some  other,  or  whether  he  ought,  upon 
any  terms,  to  enter  that  college.  In  seven  cases  out  of 
ten  those  things  should  be  known  long  before  the  stu- 
dent enters,  not  after. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

ADVERTISING    AND    THE    PUBLICITY    BUREAU    IN    THE 
REORGANIZED   COLLEGE 

IF  anyone  doubts  that  the  colleges  are  no  longer 
schools  based  on  the  home,  let  him  look  at  their  adver- 
tising bureaus.  If  he  still  doubts  that  the  colleges  need 
reorganization,  let  him  look  at  the  manner  in  which 
some  of  them,  especially  in  the  past,  have  allowed  these 
bureaus  to  prostitute  the  higher  aims  of  the  colleges 
themselves,  to  lower  their  public  sentiment,  debauch 
their  homes,  and  pervert  the  future  citizens  who  were 
being  trained  by  this  great  public  agency.  Let  him  see 
how,  too  often,  the  advertising  has  changed  position 
with  the  institution,  and  arrogated  to  itself  the  promi- 
nence which  the  institution  had  formerly  and  rightfully 
claimed  as  its  own.  In  recent  years,  intercollegiate 
athletics  have  become  primarily,  and  more  than  any- 
thing else,  the  great  advertising  medium  of  the  Ameri- 
can college,  and  nothing  like  them  exists  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world.  They  are  the  most  spectacular  col- 
lege product  of  the  last  twenty-five  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  they  have  had  their  splendid  uses 
In  the  absence  of  a  separate  college  administrative  de- 
partment, they  have  at  a  pretty  heavy  price  turned  us 
completely  away  from  our  old  ideas  of  the  round- 
shouldered,  narrow-chested  college  student  and  his  mid- 

280 


Advertising  and  the  Publicity  Bureau         281 

night  (whale-oil)  lamp.  They  have  taught  us  to  appre- 
ciate the  value  of  physique  and  physical  training,  which 
we  were  likely  to  have  forgotten  in  modern  times.  From 
the  colleges  this  appreciation  has  spread  to  the  whole 
body  of  youth  throughout  our  land.  But  in  doing  this, 
and  unnecessarily,  and  largely  because  they  had  no 
adequate,  up-to-date  administrative  department,  the 
colleges  have  substituted  for  their  own  former  scholarly 
ideals  those  of  the  champion  athlete  and  trainer ;  and  in 
too  many  instances  they  have  actually  sacrificed  men 
who  had  in  them  the  material  for  fine  citizens. 

The  net  result  may  be  best  illustrated  by  a  similar 
transition,  but  in  the  opposite  direction.  Not  many 
years  ago  in  a  well-known  reformatory  it  was  found 
that,  despite  the  most  strenuous  efforts,  the  moral  ten- 
dency of  the  institution  was  thoroughly  bad,  and  that 
instead  of  reforming  its  inmates  it  was  steadily  debasing 
them.  This  was  because  their  greatest  criminal  was 
the  boy  hero  of  the  majority  of  the  inmates.  That  is  to 
say,  when  a  young  man  and  first  offender  was  com- 
mitted to  the  so-called  reformatory,  he  was,  under  proc- 
ess of  law  of  the  commonwealth,  put  into  an  atmos- 
phere dominated  by  the  notion  that  crime  was  not 
criminal  if  it  was  only  sufficiently  daring  and  successful. 
Some  wise  young  college-bred  men  of  the  neighborhood 
felt  that  the  thing  to  do  was  to  change  this  boyish  ideal. 
Accordingly,  they  started  Sunday  afternoon  exercises 
which  were  given  a  high-sounding  name,  suggestive  of 
ethics,  sociology,  etc.  The  very  purpose  of  the  move- 
ment would  have  been  frustrated  by  calling  it  or  making 
it  a  Sabbath  school.  The  meetings  were  made  exceed- 


282          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

ingly  interesting,  and  gradually  the  boys  were  encour- 
aged to  debate,  write  papers,  and  finally  to  publish  a 
weekly  journal.  Undoubtedly,  the  ideas  therein  pro- 
mulgated were  crude  and  crudely  expressed,  but  the 
object  sought  was  attained;  for  it  shortly  came  about  that 
the  best  debater  and  the  best  writer,  the  one  who  could 
express  himself  most  forcefully  by  tongue  or  pen,  became 
the  hero  of  the  inmates.  By  this  wise  but  indirect  course 
the  ideals  of  the  majority  of  the  prisoners  were  com- 
pletely changed,  and  by  wise  use  of  this  change  in 
ideals  the  institution  was  enabled  to  become  a  real  re- 
formatory instead  of  a  place  to  make  bad  matters  worse. 
The  colleges  have  adopted  about  the  same  plan,  but  in 
the  opposite  direction  and  with  opposite  results.  Ap- 
parently the  hero  of  the  college  is  its  star  athlete.1 
Nowadays  when  the  undergraduates  wish  to  induce 
subfreshmen  to  join  their  institution,  they  expatiate, 
not  upon  the  president's  preeminence,  nor  upon  the 
scholarly  attainment  of  the  professors,  nor  upon  the 
splendid  fit  for  their  future  work  as  citizens  which  is 
given  to  the  undergraduates,  but  upon  the  success  of 
the  athletic  teams  and  the  prowess  of  the  coach  and 
trainer.  Until  very  recently,  and  in  some  cases  even 
yet,  all  kinds  of  inducements,  scholarships  and  pay- 
ments were  held  out,  directly  or  indirectly,  on  behalf  of 
the  colleges  to  induce  likely  prep-school  athletes  to  go 
to  a  redoubtable  institution  of  intercollegiate  athletics 
rather  than  to  a  notable  institution  of  higher  learning 
The  colleges  have  had  their  reward!  Their  numbers 
and  their  wealth  have  increased  beyond  all  their  earlier 

>  "  Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  Chap.  XXIV. 


Advertising  and  the  Publicity  Bureau         283 

dreams.  The  colleges  have  had  their  advertising  but 
they  have  reaped  the  whirlwind.  They  have  too  often 
discredited  their  own  higher  aims  by  their  disgraceful, 
dishonorable  and  dishonest  use  of  what  might  have 
been  proper  means  of  physical  exercise  and  of  arousing 
college  pride;  and  have  too  often  unfitted  their  most 
promising  students  for  splendid,  fruitful  citizenship  in 
their  after  lives.  They  have  overstimulated  and  over- 
developed their  community  life  at  the  expense  of  their 
pedagogy  and  homes. 

The  notion  of  a  publicity  bureau  is  much  more 
generic  and  far-reaching  than  that  of  an  advertising 
bureau.  The  latter  is  associated  in  our  minds  with  the 
sale  of  goods  or  other  direct  monetary  transactions. 
The  former  is  far  more  comprehensive  in  its  meaning 
and  uses,  for  it  applies  to  many  things  which  have  no 
relation  to  pecuniary  affairs.  By  publicity,  as  its  very 
name  implies,  is  meant  the  making  public  or  giving 
public  currency  to  some  information  or  report  which 
otherwise  would  be  unknown  to  those  who  should 
know  of  it.  Publishing  and  publicity  are  more  nearly 
synonymous  than  advertising  and  publicity.  It  is 
publicity  when  the  state  or  any  subdivision  thereof 
publishes  its  laws  or  ordinances,  or  the  annual  or  other 
reports  of  its  officers,  boards  or  commissioners.  All  of 
the  bulletins  published  by  the  various  departments  at 
Washington  are  merely  the  products  of  the  vast  pub- 
licity system  which  the  United  States  Government  has 
developed  more  scientifically  and  beneficently  than  any 
other.  The  catalogue  of  a  great  library  or  university 
is  a  part  of  its  publicity  plan,  and  necessary  to  make  its 


284          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

opportunities  for  good  available  in  the  widest  way.  It 
is  in  this  broad  sense  that  the  word  "publicity"  is  used 
here. 

The  new  and  separate  administrative  department  will 
not  fail  to  have  its  carefully  organized  and  efficient  pub- 
licity bureau  which  will  insure  that  its  objects,  regula- 
tions and  proposed  changes  are  fully  made  known,  in  an 
authoritative  and  intelligent  way,  to  college  authorities, 
alumni,  students  and  parents,  and  to  all  others  entitled 
to  know  what  it  is  attempting  to  do;  to  the  end  that  all 
factors  in  its  new  problems  shall  intelligently  cooperate 
in  their  solution.  This  publicity  bureau  will  serve  to 
enlighten  and  to  increase  the  interest  of  its  own  teachers 
and  pupils,  as  well  as  of  those  without  the  college  walls. 
In  many  factories  there  are  posted  every  day  in  each  de- 
partment the  highest  record,  and  the  record  of  the  pre- 
vious day,  of  that  department  and  of  the  whole  plant- 
to  the  end  that  each  operative  shall  take  not  only  an  in- 
telligent interest  in  his  own  machine  and  output,  but  in 
those  of  his  fellows  and  of  the  whole  factory.  The  poor 
work  of  any  individual  mechanic  is  resented  by  his 
fellows,  for  it  lowers  the  general  result  of  the  depart- 
ment and  of  the  entire  plant.  The  reorganized  colleges 
will  have  an  intelligent  publicity  bureau  which  will  help 
to  promote  team  work  and  tune  up  the  whole  establish- 
ment. They  will  not  encourage  an  external  advertising 
bureau  to  boom  their  intercollegiate  athletics,  and  yet 
consider  it  undignified  to  have  a  publicity  bureau  for 
proper  scholastic  purposes.  They  will  know  that  there 
are  other  things  than  athletics  in  which  the  colleges 
ought  to  be  proud  of  their  records  and  of  their  members 


Advertising  and  the  Publicity  Bureau         285 

on  the  "  All- America  Team."  This  new  bureau  will 
learn,  from  its  own  football  manager  or  from  some  suc- 
cessful business  alumnus,  many  points  on  external  pub- 
licity and  on  keeping  up  student  and  alumni  interest. 
The  object  of  such  publicity  will  not  be  vainglory,  but 
to  promote  team  work,  and  college  pride,  and  esprit  de 
corps,  and  thus  the  good  work  of  those  who  would  other- 
wise be  indifferent  or  lazy;  and  thereby  assist  the  col- 
lege, and  every  part  of  it,  in  turning  out  better  citizens. 

Especially  at  the  first  this  publicity  will  be  necessary 
for  the  department's  own  protection  and  to  justify  its 
innovations.  For  this  department  must  expect  to  be 
the  factor  in  the  college  with  which  the  most  fault  will 
be  found.  The  head  of  it  must  not  be  thin-skinned,  for 
he  will  discover,  as  do  others  in  like  positions,  that  he 
will  be  the  safety  valve  of  the  institution,  and  in  the 
baldest  way  will  be  used  to  save  the  face  of  others.  He 
will  be  like  the  city  editor  of  a  great  newspaper  or  the 
managing  clerk  of  a  large  law  office,  who  often  get  little 
credit  for  their  good  work,  yet  are  blamed  for  their  own 
mistakes  and  for  the  results  of  the  mistakes  of  all  who 
are  under  them — or  above  them. 

On  this  point  a  college  professor  writes: 

"It  may  be  worth  while  noticing  that  the  newspaper  edi- 
tors are  the  chief  obstacle  in  the  way  of  making  public  the 
intellectual  side  of  the  college.  They  will  not  use  this  mat- 
ter but  they  cry  for  the  other.  This  I  know  by  experience." 

Publicity  is  but  a  minor  branch  of  administration, 
but,  like  every  other  branch,  an  exceedingly  important 
component  part  in  a  perfect  whole.  The  publicity  bu- 
reau will  completely  reverse  what  has  been,  too  often, 


286  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

the  star-chamber  policy  of  the  faculty.  It  will  sys- 
tematically and  conscientiously  lay  before  all  concerned 
in  or  with  the  college  the  institution's  plan  of  fulfilling 
its  duty  to  the  commonwealth  and  to  them,  and  appeal 
for  their  enthusiastic  aid  in  attaining  such  high  ends. 

The  publicity  bureau  will  be  an  interesting  and  im- 
portant agent  in  the  college  economy.  It  will  often 
serve  as  the  brake  upon  the  whole  administrative  sys- 
tem, and  as  the  preliminary  test  of  any  proposed  re- 
forms. Our  most  successful  presidents  have  been  those 
who  kept  their  ear  to  the  ground,  who  knew  the  great 
heart  of  the  people,  and  what  the  nation  needed  and 
could  do.  It  is  one  thing  to  think  out  a  plan  or  theory 
in  private,  and  quite  another  to  state  it  clearly,  and 
justify  it  before  the  public.  The  latter  will  be  one 
of  the  functions  of  the  college  publicity  bureau;  and  a 
very  important  and  sobering  function  it  will  be.  Usually 
before  it  makes  an  important  publication  this  bureau 
will  have  felt  the  college  pulse  and  will  have  paved  the 
way  for  a  cordial  acceptance  of  the  new  plans. 

The  president  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation  says: 

"College  authorities  have  hitherto  been  inclined  to  take 
the  position  that  the  public  is  not  concerned  with  the  details 
of  the  financial  administration  of  institutions  of  learning. 
I  wish  to  urge  that  the  policy  of  publicity  in  these  matters 
is  the  only  true  one.  The  public  which  supports  a  college 
is  entitled  to  know  how  the  college  income  is  spent,  what 
proportion  goes  into  administration,  what  salaries  are  paid, 
how  much  is  spent  in  advertising  ano\  other  details  of  ex- 
pense. It  has  been  a  source  of  strength  to  the  state  uni- 
versities that  these  details  (including  the  exact  pay  of  each 
officer  and  teacher)  must  be  printed  for  public  inspection. 
A  thoroughgoing  financial  statement  of  investments,  an- 


Advertising  and  the  Publicity  Bureau         287 

nual  receipts  and  expenditures  should  be  required  by  law  of 
all  chartered  institutions.  Colleges  and  universities  should 
do  this  without  legal  requirement  as  a  matter  of  good  faith."1 

But  this  is  not  going  nearly  far  enough.  The  finan- 
cial condition  and  needs  of  the  institution  should  be 
plainly  and  fairly  stated  at  least  once  a  month,  and  laid 
frankly  before  every  alumnus,  and  before  the  parents 
of  every  undergraduate,  and  be  put  into  the  hands  of 
everyone  interested  in  the  institution  who  asks  for  a 
copy  of  these  statements.  A  high  standard  should  be 
set  for  the  financial  needs  of  the  college — say  $400  per 
annum  per  student  for  instructional  and  other  pur- 
poses, in  addition  to  $100  for  administration  expenses. 
The  number  of  students  should  then  be  strictly  limited 
to  this  standard  until  the  income  for  an  increase  in 
numbers  has  been  supplied  through  the  labors  of  the 
publicity  bureau. 

In  all  earnestness  I  say  to  the  colleges:  "According 
to  your  faith,  be  it  unto  you!"  You  will  get  all  the 
money  you  need,  provided  you  constantly,  honestly, 
frankly  and  wisely  exhibit  to  your  friends  and  alumni 
the  real  cost  of  maintaining  a  reorganized  college,  whose 
aim  is  to  train  every  undergraduate  so  as  to  develop  one 
hundred  per  cent  of  his  capacity  for  future  citizenship 
in  all  its  planes.  But  do  not  be  driven  into  the  old  mis- 
take of  exceeding  your  capital.  If  a  new  and  desirable 
departure  is  proposed  which  requires  new  expense,  do 
not  be  afraid  to  ask  where  the  money  is  coming  from. 
Let  him  who  proposes  a  new  departure  work  out  its 

1  "  The  Financial  Status  of  the  Professor  in  America  and  in  Ger- 
many," p.  x. 


288  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

estimated  expense  and  then  provide  it.  But  be  sure  tc 
work  the  publicity  bureau  overtime  in  showing  what  the 
college  is  accomplishing.  There  is  little  need  of  beg- 
ging. Good,  clean  work  for  citizenship  will  be  fully 
appreciated  and  the  money  to  extend  it  will  be  forth- 
coming. 

"According  to  your  faith  [and  good  faith],  be  it  unto 
you!" 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

STANDARDIZATION  AND  UNIFORMITY  IN  THE  REORGAN- 
IZED  COLLEGE 

I  HAVE  repeatedly  had  occasion  to  refer  to  the  unfor- 
tunate results  which  come  from  the  lack  of  standardiza- 
tion in  our  colleges,  but  this  matter  is  so  vital  in  the  eyes 
of  the  reorganizer  that  it  must  be  discussed  by  itself  and 
its  significance  further  demonstrated. 

In  every  important  corporate  interest,  except  the 
colleges,  standardization  has  been  one  great  step  for- 
ward during  the  past  forty  years.  The  mind  turns 
naturally  to  the  railroad  gauge  of  four  feet  eight  and  one- 
half  inches  at  which  our  railway  tracks  have  at  last  been 
made  uniform.  Yet  at  the  first  this  was  merely  an 
adaptation  of  the  gauge  at  which  the  wagons  in  the 
country  had  been  previously  standardized.  But  this  is 
a  very  minor  part  of  the  great  struggle  for  standardiza- 
tion which  has  enabled  our  railroads  to  bring  about  im- 
portant reductions  in  the  cost  of  transportation.  At 
first 

"the  knowledge  acquired  by  the  officials  of  one  company 
as  the  result  of  experiment  and  experience  was  unknown 
to  the  others,  rarely  communicated  and  sometimes  jealously 
guarded." 

This  has  been  completely  changed,  and  almost  entirely 
through  the  formation  of  the  various  railway  associa- 

289 


290  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

tions  which  are  national  in  their  character.  The  chief 
aim  of  the  following  associations  has  been  to  standard- 
ize, improve  and  make  uniform  some  particular  branch 
of  railroading,  principally  in  administration :  The  Amer- 
ican Railway  Association,  The  Master  Car  Builders' 
Association,  the  American  Railway  Master  Car  Me- 
chanics' Association,  the  International  Association  of 
Car  Accountants  and  Car  Service  Officers,  the  Railway 
Transportation  Association,  the  Association  of  Railway 
Telegraph  Superintendents,  the  Train  Dispatchers  As- 
sociation of  America,  the  International  Association  of 
Railway  Surgeons,  the  National  Association  of  Car 
Service  Managers,  the  American  Railway  Engineering 
and  Maintenance  of  Way  Association,  the  American 
Association  of  General  Passenger  and  Ticket  Agents, 
the  American  Association  of  Traveling  Passenger 
Agents,  the  American  Association  of  General  Baggage 
Agents,  the  Association  of  American  Railway  Account- 
ing Officers,  the  Association  of  Railway  Claim  Agents, 
and  the  Freight  Claim  Association.  Other  national  as- 
sociations of  railway  officers  and  employees  of  the  oper- 
ating department,  also  organized  largely  for  the  stand- 
ardization and  improvement  of  the  equipment  and 
service,  comprise  superintendents  of  bridges  and  build- 
ings, master  boiler  makers,  master  car  and  locomotive 
painters,  railway  air-brake  men,  etc.  It  is  through  the 
standardization  and  uniformity  brought  about  by  the 
efforts  of  these  and  many  other  similar  associations  that 
railroad  equipment  is  interchangeable;  that  freight  may 
be  sent  anywhere  without  breaking  bulk;  that  interline 
coupon  tickets  enable  passengers  to  buy  transportation 


Standardization  and  Uniformity  291 

from  each  principal  point  to  all  other  principal  points 
on  the  continent;  in  a  word,  that  the  railroads  have 
been  enabled  to  build  up  the  country  and  its  wealth, 
and  thus  to  make  some  repayment  for  the  enormous 
rights  and  powers  which  have  been  so  freely  conferred 
upon  them  as  public  servants. 

In  the  same  manner  there  has  been  an  ever-growing 
tendency  toward  standardization  and  uniformity  in  most 
trades  and  forms  of  manufacturing.  In  many  indus- 
tries uniform  price  lists  have  been  used  by  every  manu- 
facturer for  thirty  or  forty  years.  The  hundreds  of 
different  prices  upon  the  list,  covering  all  the  articles 
manufactured,  have  not  varied  during  that  period,  but 
the  fluctuations  have  been  merely  in  the  discounts  from 
the  prices  upon  the  list.  The  customer  cannot  and  need 
not  remember  the  exact  former  cost  to  him  of  a  par- 
ticular article,  but  only  whether  the  discount  is  greater 
or  less  in  one  instance  than  another.  Nor  need  he  re- 
member the  prices  of  hundreds  of  sizes  and  kinds  of 
pipes,  couplings  and  fittings,  but  merely  the  relative 
discounts  from  a  fixed  and  universal  price  list;  that  is, 
whether  his  discount  was  twenty-five,  twenty-six,  twenty- 
eight,  thirty  or  thirty-five  per  cent  from  the  listed 
price. 

So  there  is  a  constant  tendency  to  standardization 
and  uniformity  in  mechanical  details;  in  sizes,  gauges, 
threads  and  other  things  which  in  olden  times  not  only 
differed  in  the  product  of  different  makers  but  in  the 
product  of  each  manufacturer. 

Standardization  and  uniformity  tend  to  economy,  in- 
creased use  and  demand,  efficiency  and  improved  re- 


292  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

suits.  The  same  rule  would  apply  as  well  in  the  col- 
leges if  they  would  as  intelligently  apply  it  through  an 
administrative  department. 

I  have  already  referred  in  Chapter  I  to  the  variety  of 
form  and  content  of  our  so-called  colleges  and  univer- 
sities. A  direct  corollary  of  this  is  the  immense  loss  of 
power  and  unnecessary  lack  of  efficiency  which  result 
from  the  failure  of  the  colleges  to  standardize  and  make 
uniform  many  of  their  processes  and  functions.  Judg- 
ing the  colleges  as  a  whole,  jrom  the  standpoint  oj  the 
student — that  is,  that  the  college  education  is  to  enable 
him  to  find  himself  and  then  to  train  him  to  his  utmost 
efficiency  in  every  plane  of  his  future  citizenship — the 
careful  business  observer  is  appalled  at  the  enormous 
loss  of  future  potentiality  in  citizenship,  intellectual 
growth  and  true  culture  which  is  chargeable  to  the  lack 
of  standardization  and  uniformity  in  certain  of  the  ad- 
ministrative and  productive  or  instructional  parts  of  the 
colleges.  But  this  is  evident  also  if  the  study  is  from 
any  other  standpoint  than  that  of  the  student.  The 
Carnegie  Foundation  has  carefully  scrutinized  the  col- 
lege economy,  and  summed  up  some  of  its  discoveries 
in  its  Bulletins.  It  is  instructive  to  note  some  of  its 
conclusions  as  to  the  waste  capital,  income,  material 
and  opportunity  caused  by  the  lack  of  standardization 
and  uniformity. 

As  to  the  fundamental  organization  of  the  colleges,  it 
finds  the  greatest  diversity  of  conditions.  More  than 
half  the  institutions  have  a  more  or  less  direct  connec- 
tion with  religious  denominations,  but  the  report  tabu- 
lates over  fifty  differing  forms  in  which  this  connection 


Standardization  and  Unijormity  293 

is  made.     But  even  this  diversity  is  further  complicated, 
for  the  Second  Bulletin  says  (p.  7)  that 

"The  state  governments  have  themselves  in  all  cases  a 
system  of  education  limited  by  state  lines.  The  same  de- 
nominations have  erected  colleges  and  universities  in  differ- 
ent states,  so  that  the  problem  of  higher  education  is  almost 
necessarily  studied  from  the  standpoint  of  the  state," 

and  thereby  the  usual  complications  of  denominational 
control  correspondingly  increased.     Again: 

"It  is  evident  that  if  the  system  of  higher  education  is 
finally  to  have  unity,  strength  and  thoroughness,  enormous 
sums  of  money  must  be  spent  to  develop  these  numerous 
institutions,  or  else  many  of  them  must  be  in  the  end  aban- 
doned. One  can  scarcely  doubt  that  the  latter  course  will 
finally  come  about  by  the  mere  progress  of  events,  for  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  many  of  these  institutions  are  wholly 
unnecessary.  They  have  been  produced  partly  from  a  gen- 
uine interest  in  education;  partly  by  denominational  and 
local  rivalry;  sometimes  by  the  enterprise  of  real-estate 
agents;  and  under  a  system  of  laws  which  allowed  any 
group  of  men  to  come  together  and  call  the  institution  which 
they  founded  a  college.  There  are  in  most  states  many 
more  such  institutions  than  are  necessary  for  the  work  of 
higher  education,  and  the  multiplication  of  the  number  un- 
doubtedly lowers  the  general  standard  of  institutions." 

In  Appendix  No.  V  will  be  found  extracts  from  the 
Bulletin  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation  showing  some  of 
the  things  as  to  which  the  colleges  must  be  standardized. 
I  know  of  no  publications  which  are  more  instructive 
than  those  of  the  Foundation  as  to  the  problems,  almost 
wholly  administrative,  of  the  colleges. 

But  again,  as  already  shown,  there  are  vital  differ- 
ences in  the  institutions  themselves  which  demand  in- 
ternal standardization.  Not  long  ago  the  secretary  of 


294          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

one  of  our  largest  universities  told  me  that  entering 
students  in  their  arts  and  in  their  engineering  courses 
were  of  about  the  same  grade,  coming  mostly  from  the 
same  high  or  other  preparatory  schools.  "But,"  he 
continued,  "  we  feel  an  entirely  different  responsibility  as 
to  these  two  courses.  If  a  graduate  of  our  engineering 
school  should  build  a  bridge  which  fell  down,  we  would 
consider  it  a  reflection  upon  the  whole  institution.  But 
if  a  graduate  of  the  college  makes  shipwreck  of  his  life, 
we  feel  no  particular  disgrace,  for  we  measure  our  re- 
sponsibility in  this  latter  case  by  an  entirely  different 
standard." 

We  must  not  confuse  modern  standardization  of 
methods,  and  systems  and  administrative  details,  with 
the  equally  modern  theory  and  practice  of  interchange- 
able mechanical  parts.  They  are  not  upon  the  same 
plane,  although  they  have  accomplished  somewhat  simi- 
lar results.  We  do  need  a  standardization  of  educational 
methods,  leading  to  an  increased  production  of  thinkers, 
scholars  and  all-around  citizens,  but  we  do  not  need, 
and  in  fact  should  carefully  avoid,  the  production  of 
machine-made  holders  of  college  diplomas,  all,  so  far 
as  the  world  can  judge,  of  the  D  or  sixty  per  cent 
standard. 

Standardization  of  methods  and  systems  leads  to  true 
economy  and  to  constant  improvement  in  results  and 
products,  which  can  then  be  surely  judged  and  com- 
pared. A  great  improvement  in  this  respect  can  easily 
be  brought  about  in  the  colleges. 

The  Carnegie  Library  gifts  have  shown  what  muni- 
cipalities will  do  to  obtain  certain  benefits,  and  the  Car- 


Standardization  and  Uniformity  295 

negie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching  has 
shown  how  far  the  colleges  will  go  in  giving  up  denom- 
inational connections  and  in  improvement  in  teaching 
standards  so  as  to  come  within  its  provisions.  So  if 
certain  standardized  rules  were  set  for  the  colleges,  and 
some  governmental  or  other  outside  aid  granted  to  those 
colleges  which  would  submit  and  conform  to  such  stand- 
ards and  tests,  it  would  be  found  that  the  institutions 
would  accept  the  aid  upon  these  conditions  as  gladly 
and  universally  as  the  municipalities  and  colleges  have 
in  the  other  instances.  A  little  pecuniary  help  given  in 
this  manner  would  go  a  great  way  toward  bringing 
about  speedy  and  substantial  reforms  in  our  colleges, 
and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  nothing  else  will.  For  years 
much  has  been  written  about  the  differences  between 
the  colleges  and  universities  and  the  duties  and  func- 
tions of  each,  but  very  little  has  been  accomplished  in 
the  way  of  constructive  work.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Carnegie  Foundation,  with  its  many  millions  of  endow- 
ment, has  already  accomplished  wonders  in  directing  at- 
tention to  the  internal  disorganization  and  failures  of 
the  colleges,  and  at  a  merely  nominal  expense.  This 
demonstrates  how  far  a  comparatively  small  amount  of 
money  will  go  toward  improving  college  conditions  when 
it  is  applied  in  a  businesslike  way  from  a  central  agency. 
It  also  demonstrates  that  the  mistakes  of  the  colleges 
have  been  those  of  the  head  rather  than  of  the  heart;  or 
of  a  mistaken  rather  than  of  a  true  idealism. 

The  indirect  benefits  derived  by  the  state,  in  im- 
proved citizenship  and  ideals  and  in  the  true  economy 
which  standardization  would  work  in  the  educational 


296  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

outlays  and  administration  of  its  higher  and  lower  in- 
stitutions, would  more  than  compensate  for  the  small 
additional  annual  outlay  which  would  be  necessitated. 
The  state  universities,  covering  more  than  one  half  of  the 
total  student  body,  would  adopt  improved  methods  as  a 
matter  of  course.  So  would  the  older  and  richer  private 
colleges  and  universities  which  comprehend  probably 
another  thirty  per  cent.  The  shoe  would  pinch,  if  at 
all,  with  the  smaller  and  poorer  colleges,  which  would  in 
fact  be  benefited  by  improved  administrative  methods, 
but  which  are  so  small  in  membership  as  to  make  their 
administrative  problems  very  simple. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

SOME  FINAL  SUGGESTIONS  AS  TO  THE  ADMINISTRATIVE 
DEPARTMENT 

THE  head  of  the  college  administrative  department — 
who  will  not  be  the  college  president — must  be  as  wise 
as  a  serpent,  as  gentle  as  a  dove,  but  as  firm  as  a  rock 
in  standing  for  what  is  unquestionably  right  and  desir- 
able for  the  larger  weal.  He  will  have  as  much  advice 
about  the  right  course  to  be  pursued  as  did  President 
Lincoln  about  the  conduct  of  the  war,  and  often  it  will 
be  about  as  valuable;  but  it  must  be  received  and  con- 
sidered with  Lincoln's  feeling  that,  while  the  war  was 
raging,  his  administration  and  the  country  had  enough 
avowed  enemies,  and  must  be  ultracareful  not  to  alien- 
ate its  friends,  even  if  they  were  misguided  and  officious. 

The  new  administrative  chief  must  often  go  forward 
by  indirection,  and  be  ready  to  compromise  on  unes- 
sentials  in  order  to  gain  his  larger  ends.  He  must 
adopt  as  one  of  his  mottoes  "  jestina  lente"  and  inspect 
his  ground  carefully  before  taking  too  firm  a  stand.  In 
the  beginning  he  will  be  largely  in  terra  incognita,  and 
be  arrayed  against  a  conservatism  which  will  some- 
times appear  to  be  pig-headed.  But  such  has  been  the 
rule  in  college  progress,  which  often  has  been  not 
through,  but  rather  notwithstanding,  many  of  the  older 
professors  who  were  too  old  to  learn  new  tricks. 

297 


298          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

This  new  administrative  department  will  not  be  a 
place  for  boys,  but  will  require  our  very  best  and  most 
robust  men,  with  plenty  of  good  red  blood,  yet  with  that 
genial  personality  which  can  disarm  criticism  with  a 
smile;  and  with  the  true  diplomat's  ability  to  refuse  a 
favor  and  leave  no  sting,  but  rather  the  feeling  that  the 
asker  has  been  placed  under  personal  obligation  not- 
withstanding the  refusal.  The  head  of  this  depart- 
ment must  also  be  broad-minded  enough  to  keep  his  own 
personality  in  the  background,  and  give  much  of  the 
credit  for  his  own  good  management  to  the  men  who 
are  simply  the  instruments  through  whom  he  works; 
while  he  himself  is  content  with  the  satisfaction  which 
comes  from  the  attainment  of  the  great  ends  which  he 
has  in  view.  He  must  have  unfailing  enthusiasm  and 
faith  in  the  value  of  his  work  and  department,  and  be 
able  to  impart  that  enthusiasm  to  others  in  the  college. 
In  the  words  of  an  experienced  college  president: 

"Over  both  instructors  and  students  there  must  be  ad- 
ministrators who  are  large  minded,  resourceful,  good  judges 
of  men,  swift  to  discern  weakness — but  neither  captious 
nor  hypercritical — industrious  and  truly  and  lawfully  am- 
bitious." 

The  head  of  this  department  will  constantly  be  en- 
deavoring to  find  and  train  eligible  candidates  for  carry- 
ing on  college  administrative  work,  and  be  proud  of  the 
number  of  good  men  whom  he  can  inspire  to  follow  in 
his  footsteps.  For  this  department,  with  its  diverse  and 
intricate  duties  and  functions,  will  probably  require  ten 
times  as  many  men  as  are  now  thought  necessary  in  our 
present  apologies  for  administration.  Soon  we  shall 


The  Separate  Administrative  Department      299 

come  to  feel,  as  does  the  business  man,  that  not  a  cent  is' 
wasted  which  is  spent  to  improve  administrative  con- 
ditions, and  thus  the  net  working  efficiency  of  every  man 
connected  with  the  institution.  Here  also  will  be  found 
an  opportunity  to  employ  in  subsidiary  positions  some 
bright  undergraduates  who  wish  to  earn  their  own  living. 

Here  let  us  candidly  consider  the  objections  which 
naturally  arise  in  the  minds  of  thoughtful  instructors 
who  know  that  things  are  awry,  but  hesitate  to  adopt  any 
specific  remedy  lest  thereby  the  evils  be  aggravated, 
palliated  or  transferred  to  some  other  location  in  the 
general  scheme  of  education. 

A  progressive  dean  of  a  Western  university  writes: 

"Two  general  criticisms  to  your  plans  keep  coming  up  in 
my  mind.  There  is  among  teachers  an  innate  fear  of  being 
ruled  by  red  tape.  Emphasis  is  laid  generally  on  sponta- 
neity, on  freedom  from  restraint  which  permits  men  to  follow 
their  natural  lines.  How  can  you  convince  the  pedagogic 
arm  of  the  service  that  the  newly  created  administrative 
branch  will  not  put  into  force  rules  which  will  encroach 
upon  the  rights  of  the  teachers — they  would  say,  upon  their 
power  to  carry  on  work  so  as  to  develop  satisfactorily  their 
students?  Now  please  understand  this  does  not  appear  to 
me  a  serious  argument,  but,  in  talking  the  problem  over  with 
colleagues,  they  feel  a  great  hidden  danger  in  the  growth  of 
a  power  which  may  make  them  cogs  of  a  wheel.  I  find 
they  regard  the  administrative  machinery  of  our  great  cor- 
porations as  fetters  rather  than  tools,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
make  them  view  the  matter  in  any  other  light.  In  the  next 
place, .  the  amount  of  money  involved  is,  for  any  Western 
institution,  relatively  enormous.  The  mere  statement  of  this 
amount  will  cause  the  question  to  be  decided  adversely  at 
once.  There  must  be,  I  fear,  a  suggestion  of  a  line  of  grad- 
ual change  which  shall  in  time,  as  the  results  are  seen  and 
appreciated,  lead  to  the  full  adoption  of  your  plan.  In  fact 
is  it  not  true  that  evolution  is  always  a  gradual  process? 


300          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

Even  the  advocates  of  mutation  hold  that  such  sudden 
changes  do  not  work  a  very  radical  alteration  in  first  instance. 
How  can  you  plan  for  gradual  systematization  of  the  ad- 
ministrative element?" 

I  have  fully  shown  elsewhere  that  true  administration 
is  a  helpful  tool  and  not  an  expensive  clog,  and  that  in 
the  reorganized  college  it  will  relieve  the  instructor  from 
outside  drudgery  and  insure  good  pedagogical  results. 
The  application  of  new  administrative  methods  may 
or  may  not  be  gradual.  Their  formulation  should  be 
complete  from  the  beginning,  leaving  the  development 
of  the  complete  plan  to  a  more  or  less  distant  future. 
The  inherent  distinction  between  modern  college  peda- 
gogy and  administration  must  be  firmly  grasped :  its  ap- 
plication in  all  its  details  may  occupy  much  time  and 
meet  with  many  obstacles.  But  we  can  see  from  the 
above  letter  why,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  college 
administration,  as  an  adjunct  to  and  under  the  control 
of  the  pedagogical  branch,  is  sure  to  be  a  comparative 
failure  in  a  large  institution. 

Let  us  suppose,  for  example,  that  the  faculty  has  100 
members,  instructing  about  i  ,000  undergraduates.  We 
have  already  gotten  some  notion  of  the  importance  of  the 
administrative  problems  which  are  involved  if  such  an 
institution  is  to  perform  its  whole  duty  to  the  common- 
wealth, and  to  all  the  other  interests  which  have  a  right 
to  expect  the  college  to  do  its  full  duty,  and  especially 
in  view  of  present  transitoriness  and  uncertainty  of  all 
college  conditions.  Suppose,  further,  that  a  few  indi- 
vidual professors,  eminently  fitted  for  their  pedagogical 
duties,  are  delegated  to  institute  and  supervise  adminis- 


The  Separate  Administrative  Department      301 

trative  reforms.  Admittedly,  they  are  not  experts  in 
this  science  in  its  modern  sense,  and  moreover  any  time 
taken  by  the  delegated  teachers  for  administration  must 
be  diverted  from  their  time  as  instructors  and  their 
pedagogical  results  be  correspondingly  lessened.  Hence 
the  reforms  cannot  be  complete  unless  these  professors 
give  up  much  of  their  time  to  enforcing  what  they  have 
proposed.  But  true  and  radical  reform  always  pinches 
at  some  point.  In  the  present  instance  the  reformers 
are  colleagues,  fellow-instructors  presuming  to  dictate 
to  their  equals  and  fellows  how  the  latter  shall  conduct 
their  own  work  and  courses.  Almost  inevitably  jeal- 
ousy and  dissatisfaction  arise  in  the  minds  of  the  col- 
leagues as  to  the  methods  and  even  as  to  the  manners 
and  motives  of  the  reformers.  It  is  a  case  of  the 
prophet  not  without  honor.  The  members  of  the 
faculty  are  usually  of  equal  rank,  and  many  are  avowedly 
opposed  to  any  interference  with  their  rights  or  courses. 
So  long  as  the  administration  is  under  the  control  of  a 
faculty  in  which  such  an  element  has  a  considerable 
voice,  it  must  be  evident  that  the  administration  must 
be  anything  but  up-to-date  and  efficient. 

The  notion  of  pedagogical  control  of  college  adminis- 
tration is  repugnant  to  all  modern  business  methods 
and,  in  the  eyes  of  trained  business  administrators, 
doomed  to  failure.  It  is  precisely  at  this  point  that  a 
great  conflict  is  being  waged  between  capital  and  the 
trades  unions.  The  latter  insist  that  the  foremen  and 
superintendents,  who  are  part  of  the  administrative  ma- 
chinery, shall  be  amenable  to  the  men,  the  producers. 
The  employers  insist  that  these  administrative  agencies 


302  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

shall  be  under  the  full  control  of  the  concern,  and  that 
otherwise  there  will  be  poor  productive  results.  In  this 
regard  the  advocates  of  pedagogic  control  of  the  college 
administration  are  ranged  on  the  side  of  the  trades 
unions  and  not  on  that  of  true  business  principles.  They 
would  have  the  administration  controlled  by  the  pro- 
ducers and  not  by  the  college.  Such  a  system  might 
have  been  expected  to  fail  disastrously,  and  certainly 
there  has  been  no  disappointment  in  this  regard! 

We  have  seen  that  the  pedagogical  department  repre- 
sents, in  one  sense,  but  ten  per  cent  of  the  student's  time, 
and  that  it  is  but  one  of  the  great  factors  which  help  the 
student  to  find  himself  and  make  his  college  education  a 
training  for  future  citizenship.  Therefore  it  is  easy  to 
see  that,  primarily,  college  administration  should  repre- 
sent the  institution,  and  be  its  right  hand  in  performing 
its  great  duties,  rather  than  be  an  adjunct  to  one  de- 
partment of  the  institution,  even  though  that  be  the  de- 
partment of  production  or  instruction.  We  must  not 
put  the  cart  before  the  horse.  The  chief  question  is  not 
whether  the  pedagogical  department  requires  better  ad- 
ministration, but  rather  whether  the  commonwealth, 
the  parents,  the  students  and  all  others  interested  in  the 
college  do  not  and  should  not  demand  far  better  results 
in  citizen  training  from  the  college,  and  whether  this 
huge,  rich  and  complex  public  servant  can  do  its  full 
duty  without  the  aid  of  a  separate  administrative  de- 
partment. In  considering  this  subject  we  constantly 
need  to  stop  and  think  whether  we  have  not  drifted 
back  to  our  old  standpoint  of  the  college  or  some  par- 
ticular element  of  it,  instead  of  keeping  our  eye  fixed 


The  Separate  Administrative  Department      303 

upon  the  rights  of  the  commonwealth  and  the  duty  of 
the  public  servant — which  comprehend  every  lower  end. 

So  much  for  answer  to  the  first  objection  just  quoted ; 
and  now  as  to  the  question  of  expense. 

This  department  in  its  new  guise  will  pay  for  itself 
and  not  cost  the  funds  of  the  private  college  a  dollar. 
For,  if  it  is  wise,  it  will  lay  its  problems  before  the  great 
captains  of  industry  among  the  alumni  and  friends  of 
the  private  college,  and  work  hand  and  glove  with  them 
over  questions  in  which  they  are  past  masters.  The 
department  should  become  their  hobby,  which  they  will 
be  eager  to  conduct  at  their  own  expense,  but  for  the 
lasting  good  of  the  institution.  The  few  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars  which  Alma  Mater  needs  for  an  up-to- 
date  business  management  will  seem  a  mere  bagatelle 
beside  the  sums  which  many  of  these  captains  of  in- 
dustry spend  on  that  department  of  their  own  concerns. 
Their  cordial  cooperation  and  the  benefit  of  their  experi- 
ence cannot  be  bought,  but,  if  sought  in  the  right  way, 
can  be  had  for  nothing,  and  with  the  privilege  to  them 
to  foot  the  bills.  They  will  add  for  good  measure  the 
services  of  some  of  their  best  accountants  and  other 
skilled  assistants,  for  they  have  been  accustomed  to  make 
a  marked  success  and  a  work  of  art  and  science  of  any 
administrative  reform  which  they  undertook,  and  they 
will  not  spare  time,  thought  or  money  to  do  the  same  for 
Alma  Mater.  Surely  they  will  not  be  willing  to  score 
their  first  failure  under  the  eyes  of  their  fellow-alumni. 
Quite  probably  they  were  football  captains  or  leaders  in 
other  intercollegiate  contests.  As  such  they  will  delight 
to  take  another  championship  from  some  old-time  rival, 


304          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

by  developing  an  administrative  department  which  can- 
not be  surpassed  in  the  great  intercollegiate  contest  as 
to  which  institution  shall  most  intelligently  and  thor- 
oughly do  its  duty  toward  the  state  and  in  giving  its 
undergraduates  an  ideal  training  for  citizenship.  Such 
leaders  understood  mass  plays  in  college;  and  now,  as 
trained  business  men,  they  know  that  the  good  admin- 
istrator, by  caring  for  the  individuals  in  the  mass,  can 
get  such  results  from  the  mass  as  could  not  be  obtained 
if  the  mass  was  not  individualized. 

In  the  state  universities  the  additional  cost  of  the 
administrative  department  will  be  gladly  assumed  and 
provided  for  by  the  legislature.  The  value  of  the  in- 
novation will  be  clearly  seen,  and  the  states  have  not 
often  been  niggardly  toward  any  true  reform  in  their 
institutions  of  higher  learning.  If  the  separate  admin- 
istrative department  is  a  success  in  one  or  more  large 
privately  endowed  colleges,  the  states  will  gladly  adopt 
and  pay  for  so  evident  a  means  of  enabling  the  common- 
wealth to  get  its  money's  worth,  in  efficient  citizenship, 
out  of  its  enormous  annual  outlays. 

One  great  source  of  revenue  for  this  new  department 
will  be  found  among  the  parents.  Many  of  them  will 
gladly  contribute  from  year  to  year  toward  giving  the 
college  a  splendid  department  which  shall  individualize 
their  sons  and  restore  individual  training.  A  wise  ad- 
ministrative head  will  make  certain  that  he  individual- 
izes, not  only  the  undergraduate,  but  also  his  parents; 
and  thus  he  will  make  certain  that  the  parents  will  not 
allow  the  college  to  drift  back  into  its  present  state  of 
inefficiency  for  the  lack  of  a  few  scores  of  thousands  of 


The  Separate  Administrative  Department      305 

dollars  annually.  If  a  college  and  its  friends  can  sup- 
port intercollegiate  athletics,  certainly  there  will  be  no 
difficulty  in  maintaining  an  up-to-date  administrative 
department  and  its  coach  and  trainers.  At  least  let  the 
college  attempt  it. 

With  the  cleaning  up  of  the  college  community  and 
home  lives,  the  average  undergraduate  will  get  far  bet- 
ter results  at  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  present  cost  to 
his  parents.  Why  should  not  the  college  get  the  benefit 
of  the  money  which  it  thus  saves? 

But  the  new  department  will  not  only  pay  for  itself, 
but  it  will  get  large  additions  to  the  college  funds;  for  it 
can  present  the  business  needs  of  the  college  to  the 
parents  and  business  alumni  in  the  terms  and  forms  to 
which  they  are  accustomed  in  their  own  affairs.  It  will 
no  longer  be  the  president's  chief  duty  to  pass  the  hat; 
for  the  parents  and  business  alumni,  with  the  college 
balance  sheet  and  the  expert  advice  of  an  up-to-date 
administrative  department  before  them,  will  in  some 
things  be  better  able  to  judge  of  what  the  college  needs 
than  the  president  himself,  and  probably  they  will  feel 
like  doing  things  more  thoroughly  and  on  a  more  liberal 
scale  than  any  instructor  would  dare  to  propose. 

The  colleges  should  be  more  like  banking  institutions, 
with  plenty  of  liquid  capital.  Instead  of  this  it  has  too 
often  seemed  to  be  their  aim  to  sink  as  much  as  possible 
of  their  money  in  buildings,  instead  of  keeping  it  in 
interest-bearing  funds  wherewith  to  hire  brains.  The 
banks  which  have  a  hard  time  in  periods  of  panic  are 
frequently  those  which  have  tied  up  large  portions  of 
their  capital  in  fine  piles  of  brick  and  mortar.  These 


306          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

buildings  may  bring  a  fair  return  upon  the  capital  in- 
vested in  them,  but  that  is  not  a  proper  use  of  the  bank's 
capital.  Rather  it  should  be  applied  in  supplying  com- 
mercial and  banking  wants,  which  are  quite  distinct 
from  real-estate  investments. 

A  college  needs  just  sufficient  buildings  to  house  its 
members  and  their  departments,  and  these  should  be 
built  upon  a  well-defined  plan  of  the  highest  aesthetic 
and  utilitarian  value.  But  the  chief  part  of  the  institu- 
tion's capital,  that  is,  its  funds,  should  be  invested  in 
men;  not  necessarily  more  men,  but  better  men  and 
better-paid  men,  working  always  at  better  and  better 
advantage,  and  with  bettering  results,  and  held  to  a 
stricter  accountability  for  better  results.  Let  us  then  re- 
verse our  notion  that  Alma  Mater  needs  more  or  finer 
buildings,  or  that  she  must  have  new  buildings  to  rival 
those  of  some  competitor.  Let  us  grudge  money  for 
such  purposes  and  lavish  it  on  brains;  not  necessarily 
teaching  brains,  but  also  the  brains  which  will  make 
good  administrative  and  student  life  departments.  At 
any  rate  let  us  give  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  to  keeping 
our  college  assets  in  liquid  form.  In  at  least  one  leading 
university  it  is  proposed,  after  finishing  the  buildings 
now  under  construction,  to  undertake  no  further  con- 
struction for  several  years,  but  to  devote  all  efforts  to 
increasing  the  salaries  of  the  teaching  force. 

Nor  should  we  be  so  anxious  to  get  huge  endowments. 
Let  us  cultivate  the  sources  from  which  we  can  get  a 
large  annual  income  through  small  annual  subscrip- 
tions. If  we  have  this  source  of  income  we  will  soon  get 
the  endowment;  but  the  reverse  is  not  necessarily  true. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE    RELATION    OF  ADMINISTRATION    TO   THE  STUDENT 
LIFE  IN  THE  REORGANIZED  COLLEGE 

THE  reorganized  college  will  recognize  that  the  stu- 
dent life  and  administrative  departments  are  separate 
from,  yet  coordinate  with,  each  other,  and  that  both  are 
subordinate  to  the  good  name  and  work  of  the  institu- 
tion itself;  that  is,  to  its  duty  as  a  quasi  state  and  as  a 
public  corporation.  In  other  words,  they  are  but  means 
to  the  greater  whole,  which  in  itself  is  primarily  only  a 
means  to  achieve  the  lasting  good  of  its  individual  stu- 
dents. But  these  departments  run  so  closely  parallel  to 
each  other,  and  touch  and  overlap  at  so  many  points, 
that  it  is  difficult  not  to  treat  them  together.  Yet  it  is 
necessary  that  their  essential  differences  should  first  be 
clearly  defined  in  our  minds,  for  then  we  can  safely 
think  of  the  points  where  they  come  together,  without 
the  danger  of  overlooking  equally  important  points 
where  they  are  not  in  the  same  life  plane,  and  so  cannot 
touch  each  other.  For  these  reasons  these  departments 
have  been  treated  in  different  parts  of  this  book,  but  we 
must  now  consider  how  the  administrative  department 
must  make  sure  that  the  student  life  works  out  its  own 
problems. 

As  no  two  homes  in  a  college  are  exactly  alike,  so  no 
two  colleges  are  governed  by  precisely  the  same  local 
and  internal  conditions,  and  each  must  be  reorganized 

307 


308          The  Reorganization  0}  Our  Colleges 

by  those  responsible  for  it,  and  not  by  interference  from 
without.  Hence  we  can  lay  down  here  only  general 
rules  which  have  a  wide  application. 

Let  us  clearly  realize  that  each  college  home  and  each 
college  is  to  a  certain  extent  a  law  unto  itself,  especially 
to  one  who  is  not  or  has  not  been  a  member  therein. 
The  unsolicited  interference  of  an  outsider  is  resented 
and  justly  so,  for  it  implies  that  the  home  or  college  is 
not  capable  of  managing  its  own  affairs.  However  self- 
assertive  and  self-confident  we  may  be  in  regard  to  our 
own  home  or  college,  our  attitude  must  change  when 
we  come  to  the  portals  of  another's  home  or  college, 
wherein,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  we  must  be  aliens 
and  strangers.  We  may  lay  down  general  principles,  but 
the  application  of  these  must  be  left  to  those  who  com- 
pose the  home  and  college  or  control  their  affairs.  The 
final  blame  or  praise  must  rest  upon  them — for  they, 
each  and  every  one,  are  stewards,  and  will  be  held  ul- 
timately to  a  strict  account  for  their  stewardship. 

The  first  step  in  improving  the  conditions  of  the  col- 
lege community  life  and  the  college  homes  must  be  in  a 
realization  that  these  are  complementary  and  intimately 
connected,  yet  governed  by  differing  rules  and  laws; 
just  as  our  community  or  business  lives  are  the  comple- 
ments of  our  private  lives,  intimately  associated  and 
constantly  crossing  each  other,  yet  governed  by  rules 
which  in  many  ways  differ  widely.  Hence  every  influ- 
ence which  adversely  or  favorably  affects  either  of  these 
counterparts  must  affect  the  other;  and  this  must  never 
be  forgotten  in  regard  to  the  general  student  life  and  the 
college  family  life. 


Administration  and  the  Student  Lije          309 

Let  us  next  remember  that  the  student's  life  should  not 
be  all  work  nor  all  play.  There  is  a  distinct  place  in  it 
for  the  play;  the  undefined  something,  quite  outside  of 
the  curriculum,  which  makes  it  a  joy  to  look  back  upon 
our  college  days,  yet  which  ever  after  makes  us  better 
able  to  live  for  and  with  our  fellow-men.  The  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  student  life  is  the  modern  successor  of 
the  earlier  college  as  a  school  of  manners,  and  we  must 
not  overlook  that  which  has  always  been  so  important 
an  element  in  the  character  of  the  alumnus.  This  is  the 
period  of  life  when  the  young  human  animal  is  full  of 
vigor  and  hope  and  fun,  and  we  must  give  these  an 
abundant  and  natural  vent,  or  there  will  surely  be  moral 
degeneration.  There  must  be  the  fullest  opportunity 
for  strenuous,  manly,  even  rough  sports,  and  for  the 
gentler  things.  We  must  breed  neither  namby-pamby 
students  nor  boors,  but  strong,  able,  cultivated,  polished 
men  and  thinkers,  who  are  thus  fitted  to  make  the  most 
out  of  their  splendid  manhood. 

We  can  never  hope  to  lay  down  precise  rules  for 
either  the  general  student  life  or  the  college  homes. 
What  is  wrong  for  one  man  may  seem  right  and  proper 
to  another.  What  will  shock  one  may  not  offend  an- 
other. Many,  many  things  are  matters  of  habit,  or 
bringing  up,  or  inclination,  and  very  few  are  so  unmis- 
takably and  essentially  morally  right  or  wrong  as  to 
warrant  us  in  interfering  in  our  neighbor's  affairs,  and 
especially  in  his  home.  If  the  college  home  atmos- 
phere is  fine,  there  will  be  no  reason  why  the  under- 
graduates should  not  be  occasionally  kiddish  and  foolish 
and  obstreperous,  just  like  most  of  their  predecessors— 


310          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

so  long  as  they  do  nothing  vicious  or  which  unfits  them 
for  future  citizenship. 

But  the  college  can  and  should  be  active  in  keeping 
the  general  student  life  as  clean  and  inspiring  as  pos- 
sible. This  is  the  straight  edge  against  which  it  ought 
to  constantly  test  all  its  rules  and  regulations.  If  the 
general  college  atmosphere  is  clean  and  right,  and  if  so 
far  as  possible  only  dean  men  are  admitted,  we  may  be 
sure  that  not  many  students  will  go  radically  wrong. 
Most  of  all,  we  must  not  forget  for  a  moment  that  college 
is  the  place  for  the  young  man  to  find  himself;  that  is, 
to  try  his  new  strength  and  his  new  freedom,  and  to 
make  the  mistakes  and  have  the  falls  which  are  incident 
to  this  life  period.  These  mistakes  and  falls  should  be 
among  his  friends  and  in  his  college  home,  that  he  may 
be  made  more  strong  for  the  more  terrible  temptations 
of  later  life.  This  portion  of  the  boy's  growth  is  passed 
partly  on  the  plane  of  his  college  community  life  and 
partly  in  his  college  home;  and  assuredly  is  as  important 
as  a  D  or  sixty  per  cent  diploma. 

The  administrative  department  will  keep  its  eye  con- 
stantly fixed  upon  the  training  of  citizens  and  thinkers, 
and  upon  the  things  which  each  individual  undergradu- 
ate needs  to  round  out  his  character,  mentally,  morally 
and  physically.  For  one  thing  the  administrative  de- 
partment will  insist  upon  compulsory  gymnastics  and 
frequent  physical  examinations,  as  likely  to  do  away 
with  certain  forms  of  moral  evil.  It  will  also  start 
model  college  homes  for  nonfraternity  members,  which 
they  will  exclusively  occupy  or  in  which  they  will  have  a 
preference;  or  in  some  other  manner  will  provide  for 


Administration  and  the  Student  Life         311 

rounding  out  the  social  side  of  the  nonfraternity  men. 
It  will  surely  individualize  every  undergraduate  so  far 
as  relates  to  his  college  community  and  home  life  quite 
as  much  as  it  does  in  relation  to  his  lessons  and  marks. 

The  college  has  certain  rights  in  every  college  home; 
assuredly  the  right  to  insist  that  no  harmful  influence 
therein  shall  adversely  affect  the  forward  progress  of  any 
student,  mentally  or  morally.  If  it  persistently  fails  in 
this  respect  any  home  may  and  should  be  suppressed  by 
the  college  for  the  general  good.  But  an  adequate  and 
able  administrative  department  will  be  in  such  close  and 
sympathetic  touch  with  the  dominant  influences  in  its 
college  homes  that  it  will  both  use  and  help  them  in  im- 
proving home  conditions,  and  thus  the  general  college 
good.  All  its  aims  will  be  toward  good  quality  of  work 
—not  for  mere  quantity.  The  students  will  study  for 
training,  not  for  marks  or  a  diploma  in  their  present 
meaning. 

We  shall  hold  our  fraternities  more  and  more  closely 
to  a  higher  responsibility  for  the  kind  of  men  that  they 
take  into  their  homes,  and  even  more  for  the  kind  that 
they  graduate  therefrom.  Their  members  must  stand 
for  good  scholarship  as  well  as  for  eminence  in  ath- 
letics and  social  functions.  We  shall  use  this  great 
home-building  and  home-making  force  along  well-de- 
fined and  well-thought-out  lines,  worthy  of  the  limitless 
amount  of  graduate  and  undergraduate  energy  which  is 
stored  therein.  The  fraternities,  as  they  realize  their 
great  place  in  the  college  lives  of  their  undergraduate 
members,  will  surely  rise  to  higher  and  higher  places, 
and  set  the  example  for  the  college  home  which  the  col- 


312  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

lege  itself  must  foster  for  its  nonfraternity  members. 
It  ought  never  to  be  necessary  for  the  administrative 
department  to  post  a  fraternity  chapter  as  vicious  and 
as  forbidden  to  receive  new  members  until  its  moral  and 
educational  conditions  shall  have  been  improved.  But 
undoubtedly  the  college  has  this  right,  and  should  use 
it — with  extreme  caution — if  necessary  to  enable  the  in- 
stitution to  do  its  great  duty  to  the  state  in  regard  to  the 
citizens  of  that  particular  fraternity  home.  But  the 
mere  threat  of  such  heroic  measures,  given  to  the  general 
officers  of  the  chapter  or  fraternity,  would  probably  be 
sufficient  to  accomplish  a  wholesome  reform. 

An  ennobling  student  life  and  clean  home  lives  will 
not  be  a  matter  of  college  law  or  ordinance,  but  of  an 
enlightened  public  sentiment  carefully  fostered  by  the 
conjoint  interest  of  the  institution  and  its  homes,  and 
growing  better  by  its  own  innate  strength;  and  the  col- 
lege's forces  for  this  end  will  be  marshalled  by  an  intelli- 
gent but  separate  administrative  department  or  bureau. 

These  are  no  fanciful  dreams  of  a  theorist.  They 
have  been  realized  many  times  in  many  places  under 
widely  varying  conditions  in  our  colleges,  but  much 
more  extensively  in  modern  business  concerns  with  far 
more  difficult  problems  and  under  less  favorable  cir- 
cumstances than  confront  the  colleges.  Under  the 
ideals  which  will  ultimately  prevail  in  our  reorganized 
institutions,  conditions  like  those  now  prevailing  in  the 
student  life  and  college  homes  of  some  institutions  will 
be  unthinkable  and  abhorrent  to  all  right-minded  men, 
for  these  will  be  banded  firmly  together  to  improve  the 
soil  into  which  the  good  seed  is  to  fall. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

THE  PRESIDENT  IN  THE  REORGANIZED  COLLEGE 

WHEN,  in  the  growth  of  a  great  business,  the  admin- 
istration has  developed  into  a  department  and  system, 
the  crowning  personality  of  the  concern  must  be  further 
evolved  into  an  executive  head.  This  executive  is  no 
longer  necessarily  the  master  workman  who  is  thor- 
oughly acquainted,  technically  and  otherwise,  with 
every  detail  of  the  business  and  able  to  step  into  any 
breach.  He  must  deal,  at  second  hand,  through  skilled 
technical  assistants,  with  things  about  which  he  per- 
sonally can  know  little,  either  technically  or  actually. 
He  knows  the  object  which  he  has  in  view,  but  frequent- 
ly would  be  quite  unfitted  to  work  it  out  unaided.  He 
is  over  all  the  departments,  not  at  the  head  of  any  one. 
He  is  as  much  the  executive  head  of  the  manufacturing 
or  other  productive  department  as  of  the  administrative. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  in  this  country  we  confuse  the 
meaning  of  the  words  "executive"  and  "administra- 
tive." This  confusion  arises  largely  from  the  loose  way 
in  which  the  words  are  used  in  connection  with  our 
government.  We  speak  of  its  three  great  departments 
as  legislative,  judicial  and  administrative,  and  forget 
that  there  is  really  a  fourth,  the  executive,  who,  in  a 
sense,  is  exercising  functions  that  are  inherently  leg- 

313 


314          The  Reorganization^ o\  Oj*r  Colleges 

islative,  judicial  and  admlfiteffative.  His  powers  to 
make  treaties  and  appointments,  to  grant  pardons,  to 
carry  out  laws  in  whose  making  he  had  a  hand,  etc., 
are  legislative,  judicial  or  administrative  in  their  nature, 
or  extra-legislative,  extra-judicial  or  extra-adminis- 
trative, according  to  the  point,  historical,  judicial  or 
political,  from  which  we  view  them.  In  a  great  busi- 
ness concern  the  executive  is  quite  above  and  outside  of 
the  financial,  manufacturing,  administrative  or  other 
departments,  and,  as  already  stated,  he  may  know  very 
little  of  these  departments  from  a  practical  or  technical 
standpoint. 

In  Harvard  and  Yale  and  the  earlier  divinity-school 
colleges,  upon  whose  plans  and  traditions  the  older 
American  college  was  founded,  the  president  was  neces- 
sarily the  distinguished  divine  who  was  fitted  to  be  a 
leader  in  all  things  connected  with  the  college,  and 
deemed  capable  of  getting  the  best  results  out  of  the  in- 
stitution for  the  church  and  state,  and  hence  for  the 
individual  students.  His  work  was  known  of  all  men, 
and  his  position  was  one  of  highest  honor  in  the  colo- 
nies. Our  earlier  college  histories  are  largely  chron- 
icles of  the  administrations  of  the  several  presidents, 
whose  names  usually  head  the  chapters.  But  these 
presidents  were  very  seldom  promoted  from  the  ranks 
of  the  faculty.  They  were  strong  and  scholarly  men, 
who  had  made  a  success  of  their  work  in  the  world,  and 
who  brought  into  the  college  new  life  and  spirit  from 
the  world  without,  and  who  were  unaffected  by  faculty 
jealousies  and  dissensions.  Indeed  it  has  never  been 
the  rule  to  promote  from  the  ranks  of  the  faculty  to  the 


The  President  315 

presidency,  but  quite  the  contrary;  care  being  usually 
taken  that  the  new  president  should  be  an  alumnus  of 
the  institution,  often  an  unfortunate  method  of  in- 
breeding. Why  not,  in  our  reorganized  colleges,  formu- 
late and  apply  the  former  principles,  after  adapting  them 
to  modern  conditions? 

The  president  should  be  the  chief  executive  of  the 
whole  institution,  but  not  merely  the  chief  of  its  finan- 
cial, pedagogical,  administrative  or  student  life  depart- 
ments. These  will  each  be  important  enough  to  have 
their  own  heads  and  subheads,  their  courses  or  their 
bureaus.  But  the  work  of  the  president  is  over  and 
above  any  of  these  things.  The  chief  functions  of  the 
executive  of  the  reorganized  college  will  not  be  to  know 
the  financial  needs  of  the  institution  and  the  rich  men 
without  its  walls,  and  to  get  in  money;  but  rather  to 
know  the  riches  of  mind  and  promise  and  opportunity 
within  the  walls,  and  to  get  results  in  citizenship  and 
training  from  these  mines  of  wealth.  When  this  is 
truly  the  case,  there  will  be  little  need  of  hurrying 
around  for  money,  for  the  amount  of  work  attempted 
will  be  rigidly  limited  by  the  available  cash;  and  any 
additional  money  needed  to  expand  such  ideal  work 
will  be  readily  forthcoming,  especially  from  that  great 
mine  of  wealth  heretofore  unworked — the  parents  of  the 
men  in  college,  who  are  usually  able  and  who  should  be 
made  willing  to  give  each  year  the  sums  necessary  to 
meet  the  new  administrative  problems  connected  with 
the  training  for  citizenship  of  their  own  sons. 

The  reorganized  college  will  distinctly,  unhesitat- 
ingly— nay,  gladly — recognize  its  duties  toward  the 


316  The  Reorganization  o]  Our  Colleges 

state  and  its  higher  interests;  toward  the  various  pro- 
fessions or  businesses  into  which  its  graduates  are  to  go; 
toward  the  families  from  which  they  come  and  those 
of  which  they  shall  become  the  qualified  heads ;  toward 
its  undergraduates  within  its  walls;  toward  its  gradu- 
ates as  citizens,  fathers,  and  as  men  who  shall  make  the 
world  better  because  they  have  lived  in  it;  toward  the 
members  of  the  faculty,  that  they  may  be  not  only  good 
scholars,  but  primarily  great  and  inspiring  teachers,  and 
that  they  shall  not  rust  out  nor  become  fossilized,  but 
shall  have  the  opportunity  to  grow  and  to  do  original 
work,  with  a  chance  to  lay  aside  some  financial  store  for 
an  honored  old  age  and  for  their  loved  ones — not  as 
objects  of  charity,  but  because  they  have  earned  and 
have  had  an  annual  surplus;  toward  its  own  highest 
ends  and  reputation;  toward  itself,  with  an  honored 
past  of  devotion,  sacrifice  and  accomplishment,  but  with 
even  a  more  glorious  future  as  its  own  wealth,  and  its 
opportunities  and  the  demands  upon  it  grow.  If  this 
be  the  ideal  of  the  reorganized  college — and  it  is  a  just, 
fair  and  accomplishable  ideal — then  the  college  must  be 
headed  by  a  truly  great  man,  who  can  keep  in  touch 
with  all  these  great  objectives,  and  can  lay  out  and  carry 
out  such  a  comprehensive  plan  of  a  great  educational 
institution,  and  of  a  college  education  for  the  highest 
kind  of  citizenship ;  and  not  be  or  be  regarded  merely  as 
a  money-getting  machine.  Backed  by  his  board  of 
trustees  he  must  be  the  chief  planner,  and  be  able  to  get 
others  to  carry  out  his  policies  and  to  be  proud  to  be 
identified  with  him.  He  will  not  be  the  chief  laborer  but 
the  great  organizer;  not  the  head  of  an  army  corps,  or 


The  President  317 

division  or  branch  of  the  service,  but  the  general  who 
plans  and  executes  the  campaign,  even  if  it  covers  a 
whole  country  in  its  details;  not  the  great  scholar,  or 
financier  or  administrator,  but  the  preeminent  man  and 
executive.  A  well-organized  administrative  department 
will  be  one  great  agency  through  which  he  will  make  his 
influence  and  spirit  felt,  but  it  will  be  merely  an  instru- 
ment especially  adapted  to  bring  to  pass  the  work  of  that 
man  in  that  place,  under  conditions  which  there  sur- 
round him  from  time  to  time.  Like  the  chief  of  the  ad- 
ministrative department,  the  president  must  fully  ap- 
preciate that  it  must  be  the  skill,  hard  work  and  devotion 
of  other  men,  both  to  himself  and  to  the  cause,  which 
alone  can  make  complete  success  possible.  His  chief 
duty  is  to  plan  and  direct,  and  then  to  inspire  his 
coworkers,  and  especially  the  undergraduates,  to  do 
their  best  to  carry  through  the  great  work  of  the 
institution. 

The  president  then  is  to  be  the  man  who  shall  bring 
things  to  pass  in  the  reorganized  college.  He  will  not 
necessarily  have  grown  up  from  the  faculty  ranks,  nor 
even  be  a  graduate  of  the  institution.  He  will  have  had 
a  large  view  of  and  experience  with  the  outside  world. 
He  will  have  accomplished  something  worth  while  in 
his  previous  work.  The  business  world  to-day  is  con- 
stantly on  the  lookout  for  men  of  force  rather  than  for 
technical  experts,  and  the  college  must  adopt  the  same 
plan.  In  1907  the  three  great  insurance  companies 
of  New  York  City  had  combined  admitted  assets  of 
$1,415,857,237,  or  over  five  times  the  capital  and  sur- 
plus of  all  the  clearing-house  banks  in  that  city.  Yet 


318  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

not  one  of  those  great  companies  had  a  president  who 
had  started  life  in  any  branch  of  insurance.  One  was 
an  old  merchant,  another  a  lawyer,  and  the  third  a 
railroad  official.  At  the  end  of  1907  the  seven  largest 
banks  of  New  York  City  had  over  seventy  per  cent  of 
the  total  capital  and  surplus  of  all  the  members  of  the 
Clearing  House.  Yet  only  one  of  these  institutions  had 
a  president  who  started  life  in  a  bank.  Many  other  ex- 
amples might  be  given  of  men  who  have  made  successful 
heads  of  businesses  in  which  they  were  not  originally 
educated.  The  training  of  a  great  executive  requires  a 
wide  and  varied  experience,  but  most  of  all  it  must  be 
based  upon  the  ability  to  move  other  men  and  to  cause 
them  to  work  out  the  great  plans  which  are  clear  to  those 
at  the  head — but  which  the  workers  must  take  largely 
upon  faith.  Yet  we  should  remember  that  usually  such 
men  must  be  found  and  made,  and  are  not  to  be  found 
ready-made. 

But  there  is  one  lesson  which  must  be  learned  in  the 
reorganized  college,  and  that  is  that  executive  responsi- 
bility cannot  be  divided.  The  head  of  a  great  business 
corporation  is  at  least  left  free  to  work  out  the  great 
policies  of  the  concern,  subject  to  the  will  of  his  direc- 
tors and  stockholders  and  his  own  ability  to  make  good. 
In  such  affairs  it  is  realized  that  each  man,  with  a  per- 
sonality great  enough  to  entitle  him  to  the  place  of 
executive,  must  have  his  own  methods,  and  even  his 
own  idiosyncrasies,  which  must  be  borne  with  for  the 
greater  good.  The  armor  of  Saul  would  have  been 
worse  than  useless  to  David,  and  he  was  wise  in  insist- 
ing that  he  should  be  allowed  to  conduct  his  battle  in 


The  President  319 

his  own  way.  If  we  can  find  a  forceful  individual  fit 
to  be  at  the  head  of  our  reorganized  college  we  must  let 
him  work  out  his  own  problems  largely  along  his  own 
lines,  freed  from  the  hampering  influences  of  the  faculty, 
or  trustees  or  others,  except  so  far  as  he  needs  and  seeks 
their  help,  and  is  able  to  get  their  intelligent  and  en- 
thusiastic cooperation. 

The  most  successful  presidents  of  the  United  States 
have  been  those  who  have  gathered  about  them  in  their 
cabinets  their  greatest  compeers  and  rivals,  and  who 
have  worked  through  and  with  these.  The  successful 
college  president  will  have  a  cabinet  of  splendid  experts, 
but  he  will  not  be  at  the  mercy  of  a  faculty — for  his  in- 
structors will  be  attending  to  their  own  higher  aims,  and 
his  cabinet  will  be  the  men  through  whom  he  is  in  touch 
with  every  part  of  his  organization,  but  who  are  doing 
the  w6rk  which  he  could  not  attend  to  if  he  tried. 
No  two  successful  college  presidents  will  do  their  own 
work  or  manage  their  forces  in  precisely  the  same  way. 
Their  personality  will  be  too  strong  to  be  run  into  the 
same  mold,  but  they  will  all  unite  to  perfect  the  tools  by 
which  they  themselves  shall  work,  that  is,  their  finan- 
cial, instructional,  student  life  and  administrative  de- 
partments. Furthermore,  they  will  cordially  unite  to 
standardize  and  make  uniform  the  minor  things  in 
college  administration,  so  that  they  and  their  best  coad- 
jutors may  give  their  chief  attention  to  more  important 
things. 

In  the  reorganized  college  the  president  must  keep 
the  college  true  to  its  duty  to  the  state,  and  the  under- 
graduates true  to  their  education  for  citizenship,  and  the 


320  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

faculty  will  understand  this.  The  college  must  dis- 
tinctively train  its  students  so  that  they  may  become 
great  leaders.  Diplomas  and  marks  are  in  the  highest 
sense  deceptive,  except  so  far  as  they  aid  in  fitting  for  the 
true  scholarliness  and  mental  training  which  will  make 
it  possible  for  our  students  to  master  great  subjects  in 
their  later  life,  and  for  the  spirit  of  leadership  which 
shall  enable  them  to  dominate  and  lead  masses  of  men, 
and  by  such  combined  power  work  out  great  results. 
As  the  university  must  be  a  great  leader  for  and  in  the 
state,  so  its  trustees  and  officers  and  undergraduates 
must  be  in  the  van,  and  join  with  its  president  in  his 
aim  to  train  leaders.  And  let  us  carefully  watch  our 
president  lest  he  shall  break  down  under  such  a  tre- 
mendous load. 

In  other  words,  we  must  see  that  our  college  presi- 
dents are  forceful  men  of  affairs  and  achievements,  un- 
der whose  benign  and  stimulating  influence  the  financial, 
pedagogic,  administrative  and  student  life  departments 
will  reach  their  highest  development,  and  be  united  intc 
a  perfectly  working  machine  upon  its  administrative 
side,  but  working  for  individual  training  upon  its  in- 
tellectual side. 

There  are  many  such  men  already  in  presidential 
chairs,  but  they  are  hampered  by  the  failure  of  the  col- 
leges to  give  them  a  freer  rein.  These  men  have  worked 
out  many  of  the  college  problems  to  the  conclusions 
reached  herein,  and  have  striven  faithfully  to  realize 
their  ideals,  but  have  been  too  frequently  thrown  back  by 
the  antiquated  system  of  faculty  management  inherited 
from  the  forefathers,  or  by  the  faults  or  whims  of  boards 


The  President  321 

of  trustees,  and  by  the  insurmountable  obstacles  arising 
from  failure  to  analyze  the  problem  of  the  college  as  a 
whole,  and  because  of  the  unwillingness  to  differentiate 
and  coordinate  its  departments,  and  let  each  attend  to 
its  own  work. 


PART   IV 
SUMMING  UP 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE   MOTTO  AND  IDEAL  OF  THE  REORGANIZED  COLLEGE 

Now  that  we  have  analyzed  our  college  conditions, 
and  have  pointed  out  some  of  the  weak,  and  some  of 
the  unscientific,  and  some  of  the  vicious  spots  therein, 
we  must  take  the  next  step  in  our  reorganization,  and 
clearly  determine  the  underlying  principles  upon  which 
it  shall  proceed,  and  which  shall  control  it;  and,  if  pos- 
sible, find  a  motto  which  shall  crystallize  these  principles 
in  our  thoughts ;  for  our  criticism  has  been  constructive 
and  not  destructive.  The  conditions  are  so  different  in 
our  850  institutions  that  we  must  find  a  single  guiding 
star  to  serve  for  all.  It  has  not  been  pleasant  to  pick 
the  college  economy  to  pieces.  If  no  lasting  good  is  to 
come  from  this  exhibit,  then  it  would  have  been  better 
not  to  have  made  it,  but  rather  to  go  on  in  our  present 
blissful  ignorance  and  complaisant  self-satisfaction  with 
the  bigness  and  grossness  of  our  great  institutions,  re- 
gardless of  their  influence  for  good  or  evil  upon  the 
state  or  their  own  students,  and  of  their  building  for  true 
manhood  and  citizenship.  But  if  any  permanent  good 
is  to  follow  this  revelation  of  the  great  crime  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  against  the  twentieth  century,  we  must 
determine  upon  some  paramount  ideal  and  hew  to  that 
line. 

325 


326  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

During  the  past  generation  the  highest  single  develop- 
ment of  the  American  college  has  been  in  football.  Upon 
no  other  one  department  has  so  much  time,  money 
and  enthusiasm  of  students,  faculty,  alumni  and  public 
been  expended.  No  other  single  activity  of  the  college 
has  had  the  benefit  of  so  much  scientific  study,  com- 
parison of  results  and  standardization.  The  general 
public  knows  and  cares  far  more  about  the  flying  wedge, 
or  mass  play,  or  the  forward  pass,  or  the  onside  kick 
than  it  does  about  any  other  educational  problem  of  the 
colleges.  The  parents  of  our  land  spend  much  time  in 
deploring  the  annual  football  death  list  of  from  ten  to 
seventeen  men.  Yet  for  every  one  killed,  or  even  badly 
injured,  hundreds  of  students  are  annually  ruined  mor- 
ally and  physically  by  college  vices.  But  the  parents 
apparently  take  more  interest  in  the  physical  dangers 
of  football  than  in  the  moral  evils  which  threaten  the 
lives  and  futures  of  their  sons. 

Football,  then,  is  the  chief  flower  and  greatest  accom- 
plishment of  the  American  college  during  the  last  quar- 
ter of  the  nineteenth  century.  Let  her  not  repudiate 
her  own  offspring,  for  in  football  principles — or  at  least 
in  some  of  them — will  yet  be  found  Alma  Mater's  sal- 
vation! 

The  startling  growth  of  football  has  been  no  more 
accidental  than  the  equally  startling  growth  of  the  fra- 
ternity houses.  The  wave  which  has  swept  so  com- 
pletely over  our  land  and  taken  such  hold  on  college 
and  public  must  have  some  adequate  educational  reason, 
or  else  we  as  a  nation  must  have  gone  mad.  The  col- 
lege authorities,  looking  backward  because  they  had  no 


The  Motto  and  Ideal  oj  the  College  327 

adequate  administrative  department,  could  not  see  that 
the  former  college  home  life  was  obsolete  and  had  dis- 
appeared, and  therefore  folded  their  hands  and  did 
nothing — leaving  the  students  with  their  alumni  allies 
to  evolve  the  fraternity  home  as  a  new  pattern  of  the 
college  home,  well  adapted  to  train  the  student  citizens 
of  the  new  form  of  quasi  college  state.  In  like  man- 
ner, when  the  college  authorities,  looking  backward, 
dreamed  of  fitting  present-day  students  for  modern 
affairs  by  the  pedagogical  methods  of  the  earliest  nar- 
row-minded divinity-school  colleges — the  students,  still 
working  with  their  alumni  allies,  evolved  football,  with 
its  modern  methods,  as  a  new  form  of  education,  well 
adapted  to  teach  the  student  citizens  of  the  quasi  college 
state  some  of  the  lessons  which,  under  modern  condi- 
tions, they  must  learn,  sooner  or  later,  in  their  business 
or  professional  lives.  Football  to-day  represents  the  only 
place  in  our  colleges  where  modern  business  methods 
have  been,  consistently  and  persistently  and  for  a  long 
term  of  years,  extensively  applied  to  college  affairs  by 
experts  thoroughly  in  earnest  and  intimately  acquainted 
with  college  conditions.1  As,  therefore,  the  colleges  dur- 
ing the  past  twenty-five  years  have  invested  more  capi- 
tal of  time,  money  and  first-class  talent  in  football  than 
in  any  other  one  thing,  they  must  be  careful  that  this 
capital  is  put  to  good  use  and  is  not  wasted.  Let  us, 
then,  adopt  football  principles  for  the  basis  of  our  re- 
organization, and  perchance  some  football  enthusiasm 
may  be  introduced  into  the  ordinary  affairs  of  our  re- 
organized college. 

»  "Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  pp.  237-43. 


328          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

The  college  has  paid  heavily  enough  for  its  football 
investment,  and  so  it  is  not  larceny  or  unfair  if  it  appro- 
priates, and  uses  as  the  basis  of  its  reorganization,  the 
football  principle  and  motto:  "Team  work,  hard  work 
and  good  work."  These  words  unfold  to  us  the  true 
secret  of  football  enthusiasm  and  success,  and  of  college 
lethargy  and  of  the  college  waste  heap.  In  the  early 
days,  when  a  college  course  was  felt  to  be  an  inestimable 
blessing,  it  stood  for  team  work,  hard  work  and  good 
work  by  everyone  in  the  institution.  But  as  time  went 
on — possibly  because  it  was  a  period  of  change  and 
possibly  also  because  the  college  authorities  were  look- 
ing backward — the  college  came  to  stand  more  and 
more  for  size,  and  numbers,  and  soft  culture  courses, 
and  marks,  and  diplomas,  and  a  misunderstood  student 
life,  and  a  depraved  college  home  life;  and  less  and  less 
for  team  work,  hard  work  and  good  work,  and  a  com- 
plete training  for  citizenship  and  clean  manhood.  It  is 
right  here  football  scored  its  great  victory  among  the  stu- 
dents and  with  the  public;  for  often  the  college  course, 
with  all  kinds  of  handicaps,  and  with  no  separate  ad- 
ministrative department,  was  not  in  the  race.  Every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  country  can  understand 
the  team  work,  hard  work  and  good  work  of  college 
football,  even  if  they  know  nothing  of  the  fine  points  of 
the  game,  just  as  they  cannot  understand  the  present 
policy  of  the  college,  which,  in  too  many  cases,  has  not 
made  for  team  work  or  hard  work  or  good  work.  Team 
work,  hard  work  and  good  work  tell  and  are  appreciated 
and  admired  in  a  great  army,  or  fleet,  or  business  estab- 
lishment, or  in  an  America's  Cup  race,  or  in  a  football 


The  Motto  and  Ideal  oj  the  College  329 

game,  or  in  any  walk  of  life,  and  they  will  surely  be  the 
motto  and  plan  of  the  reorganized  college. 

Every  student  knows  what  team  work  means  in  foot- 
ball. It  signifies  a  common  goal  to  be  reached,  after 
months  or  years  of  training,  by  the  united  efforts  of 
many  men,  playing  different  positions  in  different  ways, 
along  different  lines,  yet  trained  for  every  emergency, 
and  with  every  advantage  of  trainer,  coach,  substitutes, 
accessories  and  audience — in  a  fair  fight,  with  a  worthy 
foe  and  for  a  worthy  end.  Good  team  work  means  this 
in  every  proper  relation  of  life.  If  team  work,  hard 
work  and  good  work  are  possible  in  college  football, 
then  surely  also  in  the  college  itself.  Yet  in  the  col- 
lege economy,  the  great  department  which  could  and 
should  organize  and  supervise  team  work  throughout 
the  body  politic — in  its  government,  among  its  citizens 
and  within  its  homes — is  practically  undeveloped  and 
unused.  There  is  no  administration  in  our  colleges  in 
the  comprehensive  meaning  which  the  word  has  in  our 
great  business  or  manufacturing  concerns,  or  even  in  our 
football ;  or  else  the  college  would  have  adapted  its  old 
motto  to  new  conditions,  and  would  not  have  allowed 
its  football  coach  so  often  to  appropriate  it  to  his  own 
exclusive  use. 

When  the  administrative  department  has  assumed  its 
proper  place  there  must  come  the  cleaning  up  and  up- 
lifting of  the  college  homes  through  the  engendering  in 
each  of  a  strong,  ennobling,  home-making  force.  Clean, 
uplifting  college  homes  working  hand  in  hand  with  an 
enthusiastic  and  farsighted  administrative  department 
can  clear  up  the  general  student  life, — and  nothing  else 


330  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

can.  But  not  all  of  these  can  be  truly  successful  except 
as  the  college  ideal  is  raised  many,  many  degrees  to  the 
higher  plane  of  football  and  of  good  business  concerns, 
with  their  motto,  constantly  lived  up  to:  "Team  work, 
hard  work  and  good  work." 

Frequently  failures  in  college  make  great  successes  in 
life  because  the  college  ideals  are  low,  the  college  family 
life  is  vicious  and  the  college  methods  are  wrong;  while 
all  these  are  changed  when  the  student  emerges  into  a 
clean,  sane  and  uplifting  business  atmosphere,  and  his 
whole  business  life  is  governed  by  its  rule  of  "Team 
work,  hard  work  and  good  work." 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

RESUME.   THE  KEYNOTE  OF  THE  REORGANIZED 
COLLEGE 

LET  us  attempt  to  sum  up  our  case  and  make  some 
concrete  suggestions  for  the  future — even  at  the  risk  of 
appearing  to  repeat;  and  keeping  ever  before  us,  as  the 
keynote  of  the  reorganized  college,  the  ideal  of  a  college 
education  which  enables  the  lad  to  find  himself  and 
gives  him  a  training  for  citizenship  and  manhood, 
rather  than  primarily  for  either  rank,  athletics,  social 
distinction  or  the  fraternity. 

First.  The  aims  and  ideals  of  the  college  must  be 
high  and  clearly  defined.  Its  duty  to  the  common- 
wealth and  to  the  higher  interests  and  the  better  policies 
thereof,  as  well  as  to  the  individuals  and  families  which 
comprise  the  commonwealth,  must  be  distinctly  recog- 
nized and  fulfilled.  Much  is  said  about  what  the  state 
owes  to  the  college  as  the  capstone  of  its  educational 
system,  but  there  is  very  little  agitation  about  the  mighty 
and  complex  duties  which  the  college,  as  its  chief  edu- 
cational leader,  owesJp  the  state.  If  we  can  get  clearly 
before  our  minds  this  paramount  duty  to  the  state — a 
duty  of  leadership  in  all  that  is  good,  and  high,  and 
clean  and  ennobling;  a  duty  to  the  future,  near  and  far; 
a  duty  to  the  family  and  to  the  social  order;  a  duty  to  the 
undergraduates,  one  and  all — we  shall  have  set  up 

331 


332  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

our  first  great  standard  by  which  to  judge  of  the  real 
progress  of  our  reorganization.  Furthermore,  we  like 
to  tell  how,  in  the  love  of  its  members,  the  college  should 
be  greater  than  the  fraternity,  but  are  we  willing  to 
admit  that  in  like  manner  the  state  should  be  greater 
than  the  college  in  the  love  and  work  of  the  students? 
What  we  need  is  more  true  patriotism  for  the  common- 
wealth and  its  great  interests — along  with  our  patriotism 
for  Alma  Mater,  and  football  and  other  intercollegiate 
sports,  and  for  the  fraternity  or  club.  Possibly  we  need 
not  love  the  college  and  her  good  any  less,  but  at  least 
we  must  love  the  state  and  her  good  far  more.  En- 
thusiasm and  patriotism  for  a  successful  football  team 
form  a  very  low  and  poor  base  upon  which  to  rear  a 
solid  and  enduring  love  for  true  education  in  the  hearts 
of  the  undergraduates,  and  yet  this  is  oftentimes  the 
side  of  the  college  which  is  most  apparent  to  the  public. 

Where  in  any  of  our  colleges  is  there  a  chair  which 
attempts  to  teach  the  full  duties  of  the  college  citizen  to 
the  college  state,  or  of  the  college  state  to  the  common- 
wealth— a  great,  broad,  sane,  effective  citizenship?  Or 
where  is  there  a  chair  to  teach  the  civic  and  political 
economy  of  the  college  state  and  of  its  constituent  parts? 
The  college  must  first  realize  and  live  up  to  its  own 
ideal  citizenship  and  leadership  before  it  can  teach  these 
with  power  and  life.  0 

Furthermore,  we  must  raise  our  aims  and  ideals  as  to 
education  itself  in  the  abstract  and  concrete.  Not  as  to 
marks,  or  diplomas,  or  courses,  or  endowment,  or  build- 
ings, or  theories  or  methods,  but  as  to  the  sound,  fruit- 
ful, growing,  virile  and  cultural  education  of  each  stu- 


Resume:  The  Keynote  oj  the  College          333 

dent — the  educing,  the  drawing  out  of  the  hundred  per 
cent  of  the  best  which  any  individual  has  in  him  and  of 
which  he  is  capable;  not  alone  or  chiefly  for  the  four 
years  within  Alma  Mater's  walks  or  homes,  but  for  the 
years  to  come  in  the  walks  of  life  and  in  the  communi- 
ties and  homes  affected  and  reached  by  him.  We  can- 
not aim  too  high  as  to  education  itself,  but  it  is  easy  to 
see  how  low  we  have  fallen  in  this  regard.  We  have 
been  too  apt  to  confound  the  Kneipe  with  the  scholar- 
ship of  the  German  university.  Too  often  we  have 
been  proud  to  hold  a  diploma  which  we  knew  was  un- 
earned by  real  work  and  which  did  not  represent  true 
education.  We  have  overlooked  the  fact  that  a  German 
student  cares  little  about  the  university  from  which  he 
holds  his  degree,  but  is  proud  to  proclaim  that  he 
studied  under  such  and  such  a  great  teacher,  renowned 
in  scholarship.  With  us  it  is  too  much  the  institution 
from  which  we  have  obtained  the  sheepskin.  With  the 
Germans  it  is  the  teacher  and  the  living  truths  which  he 
appears  to  typify,  since  it  was  rfie  who  uncovered  and 
disclosed  to  the  world  many  of  these  truths.  The  facts 
which  such  a  man  can  teach  are  indeed  important,  but 
not  at  all  commensurate  with  the  love  of  learning  and 
investigation  which  he  instills  as  he  discloses  his  own 
methods  of  work,  and  thus  reveals  to  his  pupil  the  pov- 
erty of  the  latter's  youthful  acquirements  and  methods. 
Moreover,  our  aims  and  ideals  must  be  for  an  educa- 
tion that  is  utilitarian  in  the  highest  sense,  and  produc- 
tive of  citizenship  and  manhood  before  it  is  for  mere 
culture.  When  an  uneducated  man  hasfcbecome  a 
skilled  mechanic  in  any  line,  just  so  far  hasiie  become 


334          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

able  to  judge  of  the  value  of  and  appreciate  good  work 
in  his  own  or  in  any  other  line  of  work.  To  that  extent 
he  is  an  expert  in  good  work.  So,  if  the  undergraduate 
has  thoroughly  mastered  any  branch  of  learning  in  his 
course,  he  has  a  new  unit  by  which  to  measure  the 
scholarship  of  other  men,  and  his  own  scholarly  prog- 
ress and  accomplishments  in  the  future,  and  vice  versa. 
If,  in  addition,  this  mastery  has  been  obtained  under 
the  guidance  of  a  teacher  who  also  is  a  true,  even  if  not 
a  great,  scholar,  there  has  been  introduced  the  element 
of  true  culture,  no  matter  what  has  been  the  subject 
pursued.  Good  work  done  in  any  branch  of  the  cur- 
riculum makes  it  possible  to  become  thoroughly 
grounded  in  the  so-called  cultural  courses.  But  time 
spent  in  "soft  culture  courses,"  skimmed  through  to  the 
end  that  more  hours  may  be  given  to  some  of  the  twenty- 
seven  outside  activities  which  embellish  the  college 
years,  does  not  make  for  true  education  or  true  culture. 
If  a  student  chooses  for  the  most  part  soft  culture 
courses  and  does  as  poor  work  in  them  as  will  get  him  a 
diploma,  he  will  gain  neither  true  culture  nor  true  in- 
tellectual strength.  So  far  as  they  set  up  or  tolerate 
such  standards,  the  colleges  lower  the  value  of  their 
academic  degrees,  and  the  quality  of  the  education 
which  they  are  giving,  and  do  actual  harm,  mental  and 
moral,  to  their  students.  Instead  of  performing  their 
own  duty  of  leadership,  and  educating  for  future  citi- 
zenship and  clean  manhood,  they  have  debased  the 
ideals  of  the  future  citizen  instead  of  ennobling  them. 
The  man  who  uses  his  one  talent  is  far  better  than  he 
who  buries  or  wastes  his  five  talents,  and  the  colleges  are 


Resume:  The  Keynote  of  the  College          335 

often  particeps  criminis  in  this  waste.  The  colleges  fail 
in  their  duties  so  far  as  they  do  not  turn  out  men  who 
shall  use  to  the  uttermost  the  talents  which  have  been 
committed  to  them  as  individuals.  We  must  never  let 
this  ideal  of  the  reorganized  college  and  its  training  slip 
away  from  us  in  weighing  the  results  upon  the  indi- 
vidual students  of  the  course  of  any  particular  insti- 
tution. 

In  the  educational  aims  and  ideals  of  the  reorganized 
college,  we  must  never  forget  that,  in  the  professions 
and  sciences  and  in  many  forms  of  business,  this  is  the 
day  of  infinite  detail  and  labyrinthine  particulars  to 
which  the  only  clew  is  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
great  underlying  principles.  Our  education,  then, 
must  teach  our  students  to  ground  themselves  in  prin- 
ciples, and  to  build  the  details  upon  this  solid  founda- 
tion— and  not  to  think  that  they  can  ever  master  a 
great  science  or  profession  by  first  learning  its  multi- 
tudinous details  or  by  the  soft-culture-course  methods 
too  prevalent  in  our  colleges.  They  must  be  taught  how 
to  study  and  what  to  study,  rather  than  to  study  for 
a  diploma.  They  must  be  taught  the  digging  and 
drudgery  that  is  before  them  in  a  successful  life's  work 
and  how  these  must  be  tackled,  rather  than  be  allowed 
to  select  a  soft  course  out  of  a  mass  of  electives.  A 
successful  football  tackle,  with  all  that  it  implies  of 
discipline,  practice  and  coaching,  and  then  of  quick 
decision  and  action,  is  one  of  the  best  possible  illustra- 
tions of  that  training  in  hard  and  systematic  work  in 
intellectual  matters  which  the  college  should  force  upon 
every  student.  If  the  institution  will  but  make  the  ob- 


336  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

ject  of  such  work  clear  to  the  student,  he  will  be  as 
willing  to  undertake  the  drudgery  in  the  college  as  in 
the  professional  school  or  in  learning  how  to  become 
a  successful  football  player. 

The  so-called  culture  courses  had  rightfully  a  large 
place  in  the  education  for  controversy  of  the  earlier 
times,  and  their  value  was  plainly  evident  to  the  under- 
graduate of  that  day.  At  first  the  written  and  the 
spoken  word  were  in  Latin,  as  at  Harvard's  commence- 
ments.1 Until  comparatively  recently,  quotations  from 
foreign  languages  or  from  the  English  classics  or  Bible 
were  important  weapons  for  the  essayist  or  pamphleteer 
or  orator.  Hence  what  is  to-day  called  "culture"  was 
then  in  everyday  use  and  essential  to  success  under 
the  prevailing  conditions.  To-day,  we  deal  more  in 
facts  and  figures  and  statistics,  and  our  education,  our 
college  training,  should  be  framed  to  meet  modern  con- 
ditions, at  least  so  far  as  they  train  the  mind  of  youth 
to  battle  successfully  against  the  conditions  which  he, 
and  not  his  ancestors,  must  meet.  The  student's  years 
are  largely  wasted  if  we  give  him  an  education  which 
is  not  best  adapted  to  his  future  needs. 

The  educational  course  of  the  reorganized  college 
will  hold  clearly  before  its  pupils  the  higher  ideals  of 
the  best  education,  and  strive  to  fill  their  minds  with 
this  lofty  view  of  education  itself;  just  as  and  just  as 
much  as  the  best  professional  schools  strive  to  set 
clearly  before  the  embryo  professional  man  the  highest 
ethics  and  ideals  of  his  chosen  calling  and  the  lifelong 
work  and  devotion  through  which  he  must  attain 

1 "  Individual  Training  in  Our  Colleges,"  pp.  61,  82-86. 


Resume:  The  Keynote  of  the  College          337 

leadership  therein.  Only  by  this  constant  gaze  upon 
the  best  things  of  the  profession  can  a  young  man's 
mind  be  molded  to  its  highest  standards,  and  he  be 
made  ready  to  undertake  the  arduous  training  which 
success  implies.  Heretofore  our  colleges  have  largely 
failed  to  hold  up  great  standards  of  education,  and  make 
their  true  meaning  and  their  value  in  after  life  clear  and 
living  before  the  eyes  of  their  undergraduates.  This 
failure  has  often  come  because  these  things  were  not 
clear  in  the  eyes  of  the  college  authorities  themselves, 
whose  ideals  have  been  on  the  diploma-marking-system- 
soft-culture-course-electives  level  and  not  on  the  highest 
planes  of  a  true  education. 

Slouchy,  haphazard,  go-as-you-please,  laissez  faire, 
are  not  pleasant  words  to  use  about  anything;  but  they 
truly  characterize  too  much  of  our  so-called  college  edu- 
cation, as  it  works  out,  in  fact,  with  too  large  a  propor- 
tion of  our  students  in  too  many  institutions.  The 
Briggs  Report  proves  this  and  the  investigations  of  the 
Carnegie  Foundation  demonstrate  it. 

Unless  the  aims  and  ideals  of  the  college  itself  are  to 
be  raised  many  degrees,  it  will  be  practically  useless  to 
attempt  to  reorganize  upon  business  methods.  Men 
will  work  hard  for  money  or  to  support  a  family,  but  the 
college  offers  nothing  of  this  kind.  If  we  are  to  have 
team  work,  hard  work  and  good  work,  we  must  cause 
our  undergraduates  to  thoroughly  understand  the  value 
of  mastering  a  course  of  study  in  college,  as  well  as  in  a 
profession,  or  a  business,  or  in  football  or  other  sport. 
Thus  only  will  they  be  ready  to  endure  the  strenuous 
work  necessary  to  enable  them  to  master  the  college  edu- 


338          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

cation  which  shall  fit  them  to  succeed  to  the  utmost  in 
the  increasingly  hard  battle  of  life. 

This  raising  of  the  aims  and  ideals  of  our  colleges 
must  be  general  and  widespread,  or  else  the  reorgan- 
ized college  will  be  put  at  an  unfair  disadvantage  in 
some  important  particulars.  We  understand  what  was 
meant  when  a  well-known  college  president  writes  of 
intercollegiate  contests : 

"The  punctilious  execution  of  whatever  rules  are  agreed 
upon  must  be  the  sincere  concern  of  all  the  colleges  nom- 
inally concerned.  The  college  attempting  honesty  in  ath- 
letic sport  single-handed  fares  as  does  the  grocer  who  sells 
pure  sugar  when  all  his  competitors  sell  sand." 

We  shall  find  it  hard  to  keep  our  aims  and  ideals  high  if 
in  a  neighboring  institution  education,  so  called,  and  the 
obtaining  of  a  diploma  are  on  the  old  sixty  per  cent  soft- 
culture-course  basis. 

Within  the  college  itself,  and  between  it  and  all  its 
neighbors,  we  must  live  up  to  our  new  motto,  "Team 
work,  hard  work  and  good  work,"  so  far  as  relates  to 
new  and  higher  aims  and  ideals,  and  harder  and  better 
work. 

Second.  We  shall  clearly  recognize  that  our  college 
is  divided  into  distinct  departments,  and  that  we  can 
bring  about  a  successful  reorganization  only  by  making 
a  sharp  cleavage  between  these  departments,  which 
shall  thereafter  be  placed  in  keen  but  friendly  rivalry 
and  competition,  so  that  each  may  hold  the  other  to  its 
very  best  for  the  common  good,  as  is  done  in  all  well- 
organized  business  concerns.  While  there  must  be  this 
rivalry,  there  must  not  be  jealousy  or  unfairness,  and 


Resume:  The  Keynote  oj  the  College          339 

there  will  not  be  if  the  right  man  is  at  the  head  and  the 
aims  and  ideals  of  the  college  are  high  enough. 

But  as  the  college  must  look  above  itself  to  the  state 
and  the  other  higher  ends  outside  of  itself,  so  each  de- 
partment must  look  beyond  its  narrower  boundaries  to 
the  greater  whole — the  college  with  its  high  objects  and 
duties.  We  must  penalize  every  department,  and  every 
bureau  or  individual  therein,  which  balks  or  sulks  or 
otherwise  gets  out  of  harmony  with  its  or  his  confreres 
or  with  the  highest  aims  and  ideals  of  the  institution 
itself.  Each  department  in  all  its  parts  must  adopt  and 
conscientiously  carry  out  the  new  motto:  "Team  work, 
hard  work  and  good  work."  And  this  will  be  the  more 
easily  done  because  each  department  will  clearly  recog- 
nize that  it  is  a  factor  in  the  new  quasi  municipal  cor- 
poration and  public  servant,  and  as  such  is  performing 
a  patriotic  duty  as  truly  as  those  who  conduct  the  elec- 
tions or  other  public  affairs  of  the  commonwealth. 
This  will  become  more  evident  as  we  now  proceed  to 
discuss  the  various  departments  in  detail. 

Third.  In  many  institutions  some  functions  of  the 
financial  department  cannot  be  much  improved  upon. 
The  funds  are  well  and  conservatively  invested,  the 
securities  are  safeguarded  and  annually  checked  off  by 
outsiders,  the  accounts  are  intelligently  and  clearly 
kept  and  detailed,  and  complete  annual  audits  and  re- 
ports made,  published  and  distributed.  The  funds  are  in- 
vested, the  accounts  are  kept,  and  the  audits  and  reports 
are  made  by  experts.  There  are  still  some  improve- 
ments which  can  and  will  be  made  as  to  application  and 
distribution  of  funds,  etc.,  but  this  department  should 


34Q  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

be  the  least  troublesome  and  most  easily  managed  of  all. 
Yet  there  are  many  college  presidents  who  have  in- 
sisted to  me  that  there  is  a  great  laxity  and  want  of 
system  in  the  financial  affairs  of  many  institutions.  If 
so,  it  is  unpardonable;  for  there  are  many  places,  like 
Harvard  and  Oberlin,  whose  financial  system  could  be 
easily  followed. 

There  should  be  directly  connected  with  the  financial 
department  of  every  college  an  expert  accountant  who 
is  thoroughly  versed  in  factory  administration  and  ac- 
counting. The  administrative,  business  and  account- 
ing problems  of  the  college  most  closely  resemble  those 
of  the  factory  or  other  producing  industry.  They  have 
practically  no  resemblance  to  those  of  banking,  and 
very  little  to  those  of  transportation,  or  ordinary  mer- 
chandising or  jobbing.  Such  an  accountant  should 
supervise  all  the  bookkeeping  of  every  college  activity, 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  teach  good  business  methods 
and  bookkeeping  to  all  those  immediately  concerned 
therewith  and  to  the  student  body  as  well.  Also  he 
should  see  that  the  financial  department  is  divided 
roughly  into  three  parts:  the  getting,  the  investing  and 
the  use  of  funds;  covering  the  usual  and  unusual  in- 
come, the  investments,  and  the  expenditures  of  the  col- 
lege. Under  the  last  head  he  should  provide  not  only 
for  the  usual  safeguards  of  all  expenditures,  but  he 
should  also  institute  a  system  under  which  there  will  be 
introduced  as  many  new  units  as  possible  by  which  to 
judge  of  the  work  of  all  of  the  various  departments, 
courses  and  individuals  within  the  college,  and  to  pro- 
vide methods  by  which  the  exact  cost  of  each  depart- 


Resume:  TJte  Keynote  of  the  College  341 

ment  and  course  can  be  safely  anticipated  and  ascer- 
tained— to  the  end  that  there  shall  be  provided,  first, 
proper  reserve  funds  to  cover  contingencies  in  the 
teaching  force,  and,  second,  that  the  best  net  result 
upon  the  individual  undergraduate  shall  be  obtained 
through  limiting  the  student  body,  so  that  each  course 
shall  do  its  best  possible  work  upon  the  right  kind  and 
right  number  of  students,  and  within  proper  financial 
limits.  In  other  words,  this  accountant  must  be  in 
charge  of  the  factory  cost  system  of  the  institution,  and 
must  arrange  this  so  that  it  shall  be  an  available  chart 
for  future  work,  just  as  is  done  by  the  accounting  force 
of  every  modern  manufacturing  business  which  covers 
a  large  volume  of  business  and  a  large  number  of  men. 
Fourth.  The  pedagogical  or  instructional  depart- 
ment must  be  thoroughly  reorganized,  not  so  much  as 
to  personnel  as  to  methods  and  ideals.  If  the  teacher 
is  to  be  the  new  primary  unit  of  the  college  factory,  he 
must  be  worthy  of  the  place  given  him,  and  must  be  held 
to  strict  accountability  in  the  high  functions  which  he 
assumes  in  the  quasi  state,  and  must  be  rewarded  and 
regarded  accordingly;  and  these  matters  must  have  con- 
stant and  grave  consideration.  The  teacher  must  thor- 
oughly know  his  subject,  and  grow  in  it,  and  do  original 
work  worthy  of  the  state,  but  also  he  must  be  an  inspir- 
ing instructor  as  well  as  a  scholar.  He  must  enthuse  his 
pupils  and  draw  them  to  himself  and  his  subject.  He 
must  approximate  to  President  Garfield's  ideal  of  a  uni- 
versity— himself  at  one  end  of  a  log  and  Mark  Hopkins 
at  the  other.  He  must  aim  to  educe  the  very  best  that 
is  in  his  hearers,  and  must  make  them  feel  that  their 


342  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

education  has  been  perceptibly  advanced  by  their  course 
under  him. 

We  must  put  a  distinct  and  unmistakable  premium 
upon  fine  teaching  capacity,  and  not  kill  it  off  or  cripple 
it  by  unduly  or  unfairly  overworking  it,  or  by  asking  it 
to  do  the  work  of  the  poor  teacher,  or  by  failing  to  recog- 
nize and  reward  it.  If  this  premium  cannot  be  ade- 
quately paid  in  money,  then  some  form  of  honors  and 
recognized  scholastic  distinction  must  be  devised  and 
applied  and  made  known  to  the  public.  This  is  true 
of  the  German  system,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  some- 
thing of  the  same  kind  should  not  be  attempted  here. 

Most  of  all  must  there  be  the  best  possible  system  of 
promoting  a  good  scholar  and  teacher  so  that  his  talents 
may  have  a  recognized  value,  without  as  well  as  within 
the  institution  in  which  he  works.  A  victorious  college 
athlete  may  earn  the  right  to  wear  the  college  letter,  and 
often  he  will  work  hard  for  four  years  before  he  gets  this 
badge  of  honor.  Can  it  be  that  there  is  no  just  and  wise 
method  which  the  college  authorities  can  devise  by  which 
good  teaching  work  can  earn  its  crown  ?  Successful  col- 
lege athletes  are  known  throughout  the  land,  but  what 
are  the  colleges  doing  to  bring  honor  and  reward  to  the 
great  teachers  whose  work,  after  all,  is  at  the  foundation 
of  college  athletics  and  college  life? 

Furthermore,  we  must  clearly  appreciate  that  huge 
faculties  contain  the  same  class  of  dangers  to  the  promis- 
ing and  earnest  younger  members  thereof  that  huge  stu- 
dent bodies  do  to  the  individual  student.  There  is  the 
same  danger  in  each  case  that  the  individual  will  be  lost 
in  the  mass  or  pocketed  in  the  race;  possibly  because  he 


Resume:  The  Keynote  oj  the  College  343 

has  not  those  unpleasant  aggressive  and  self-assertive 
personal  qualities  which  will  push  forward  a  mediocre 
competitor.  It  should  not  be  necessary  for  one  who  has 
in  him  the  stuff  for  a  good  teacher  to  advance  his  own 
fortunes.  There  should  be  a  well-organized  adminis- 
trative system  to  recognize  and  reward  such  men  and 
put  them  where  they  can  do  their  most  effective  work 
for  the  commonwealth,  the  institution  and  the  indi- 
vidual undergraduate.  Hence  there  must  be  a  clear 
perception  of  the  need  of  picking  out  and  rewarding  true 
teaching  merit,  and  we  must  experiment  until  we  find 
the  broadest  and  most  effective  means  of  assuring  a 
crown  of  honor  and  the  largest  field  of  work  for  the  suc- 
cessful and  forceful  teacher. 

Moreover,  the  college  itself  must  award  its  own  peda- 
gogical honors  in  no  uncertain  fashion  if  its  successful 
instructors  are  to  receive  honor  from  the  world  at  large. 
For  years  this  policy  has  been  followed  in  college  foot- 
ball. Why  should  not  the  college  in  educational  matters 
— of  which  it  should  surely  be  the  best  judge — also  award 
some  of  the  honors  to  which  its  teachers  are  justly  en- 
titled? If  it  does  not  do  this,  it  cannot  complain  if  the 
world  does  not;  nor  if,  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  the  suc- 
cessful coach  or  athlete  seems  far  more  important  to  the 
college  than  the  most  brilliant  scholar  and  teacher.  The 
world  is  but  following  the  lead  of  the  college  itself,  whose 
coach  is  sometimes  more  widely  known  than  its  presi- 
dent, and  apparently  has  more  real  influence  among  its 
undergraduates  and  more  lasting  influence  throughout 
their  lives.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  nothing  of  this  kind  will 
ever  be  successful  until  a  separate  administrative  de- 


344          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

partment  introduces  criteria  by  which  good  work  in 
every  branch  can  be  picked  out,  made  known  and  re- 
warded, and  the  colleges  standardize  upon  these  cri- 
teria. 

Let  there  be  something  like  the  same  anxiety  in  the 
college  itself  for  the  health  and  effectiveness  of  a  star 
teacher  that  there  is  for  that  of  a  star  athlete.  The 
newspapers  devote  columns  to  discussing  whether  a  fa- 
mous quarterback  or  other  member  of  a  team  will  be 
in  condition  to  play  in  or  throughout  a  certain  game; 
yet  half  of  the  faculty  might  be  invalided  and  out  of  ser- 
vice, and  hardly  a  line  would  appear  in  any  journal. 
The  college  itself — not  by  rules  but  by  student,  alumni 
and  faculty  public  sentiment — must  reverse  this  order 
of  things,  whereby  in  appearance,  if  not  in  fact,  ath- 
letic renown  is  the  chief  end  of  the  institution  and  edu- 
cation the  incident. 

If  the  successful  teachers  are  to  have  a  commen- 
surate honor  and  reward,  it  must  be  because  student 
and  alumni  sentiment  understands  and  values  good  edu- 
cational work,  and  gives  it  that  chief  place  of  honor  due 
to  it  in  an  institution  of  higher  learning,  and  because 
there  is  some  recognized  and  standardized  test  by  which 
good  pedagogical  work  can  be  judged  even  in  another 
institution. 

Every  important  profession  has  had  to  assert  itself, 
and  work  out  its  own  salvation  and  its  right  to  honor- 
able and  rewarding  distinction.  Theology,  law,  medi- 
cine, dentistry,  engineering  and  other  professions  have 
thus,  from  time  to  time,  fought  their  own  battles  for 
recognition  and  honor.  College  pedagogy  must  follow 


Resume:  The  Keynote  of  the  College  345 

the  same  course,  or  remain  where  it  is  and  subject  to 
about  the  present  or  worse  conditions.  There  are  but 
two  courses  open  to  it  if  it  would  better  its  position  It 
must  actually  and  in  good  faith  raise  its  own  standards 
and  performance,  and  then  insist  upon  and  obtain  a  fair 
recognition  upon  its  merits,  or  else  it  must  organize 
upon  the  basis  of  a  trades  union  and  institute  a  country- 
wide strike. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  our  college  instructors  could 
learn  some  important  lessons  from  a  labor  union  like 
that  which  governs  our  locomotive  engineers.  For  one 
thing,  they  could  learn  to  assert  the  right  to  have  a 
controlling  voice  in  the  pedagogical  policy  of  the  in- 
stitution, and  to  be  content  to  let  the  other  depart- 
ments manage  their  own  affairs.  Admittedly,  at  first 
this  must  have  some  wise  limitations,  but  the  dangers 
of  faculty  control  of  the  curriculum  and  of  pedagogical 
affairs  will  be  minimized  when  administration  and  dis- 
cipline are  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  separate  and  co- 
ordinate department.  Again  and  again  I  repeat  it  as 
my  candid  opinion  that  the  salvation  of  the  faculty  lies 
in  a  separate  and  splendid  administrative  department, 
earnestly  determined  to  get  the  best  possible  educa- 
tional results.  The  faculty  should  demand  such  a  de- 
partment, and  demand  that  it  work  for  them,  to  make 
their  work  more  productive  and  their  results  more  sure 
and  rewarding.  I  am  firmly  convinced  that  until  such 
a  department  has  begun  to  make  itself  felt,  the  faculty 
as  such  can  never  take  their  proper  places  in  the  college 
or  the  outside  world.  To  me  this  seems  perfectly  self- 
evident.  This  opinion  has  been  acquiesced  in  by  every 


346  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

man  of  affairs  to  whom  I  have  submitted  the  facts. 
College  presidents  and  executives  agree.  But  many  of 
my  friends  among  the  instructors  stand  aghast  at  intro- 
ducing anything  like  business  into  their  departments. 
They  look  upon  administration  as  an  enemy  instead  of 
an  ally;  a  clog  instead  of  a  clarifier. 

Above  all  this,  the  instructors  must  learn  and  con- 
scientiously practice  the  new  motto,  "Team  work,  hard 
work  and  good  work" — but  especially  they  must  learn 
true  team  work.  To  that  end  they  must  realize  that 
their  power  for  evil  is  quite  as  great  as  their  power  for 
good  within  the  college  economy.  Hence  the  instruct- 
ors must  cordially  welcome  the  new  and  separate  de- 
partment of  administration,  and  do  all  in  their  power  to 
make  it  a  success  in  the  highest  sense  and  for  the  highest 
ends  of  the  college.  There  must  be  no  lukewarm  and 
grudging  acquiescence  in  the  new  state  of  affairs,  no 
anxiety  to  pick  flaws,  but  rather  a  hearty  and  heartfelt 
sympathy  with  a  difficult  problem  which  is  for  the  com- 
mon good.  Moreover,  as  a  matter  of  financial  and 
other  economy  and  efficiency,  the  teachers  must  give 
active  as  well  as  negative  help  in  the  field  of  adminis- 
tration. The  problems  of  the  latter  are  largely  those 
which  concern  the  former.  Administration  is  neither 
the  servant  nor  the  master  of  college  pedagogy,  but 
rather  its  enthusiastic  and  trained  friend  and  colaborer, 
striving  to  work  out  the  highest  aims  and  ideals  of  this 
new  quasi  state;  by  joint  action,  to  get,  in  the  intricacy 
of  modern  conditions,  the  same  quality  of  results  which 
the  instructor  working  alone  could  accomplish  under 
the  simpler  conditions  of  earlier  times. 


Resume:  The  Keynote  oj  the  College  347 

And  here  let  me  repeat  the  expression  of  my  deepest 
respect  and  regard  for  the  teaching  forces  of  our  col- 
leges. There  is  no  other  body  of  our  citizens  whose 
lives  are  more  devoted  and  unselfish,  or  whose  work  is 
harder,  or  whose  reward  seems  relatively  more  inade- 
quate. I  have  sought  to  make  my  words,  not  hard,  but 
plain;  not  to  impugn  motives,  but  methods.  I  would 
not  add  an  ounce  to  your  burdens,  but  rather  lessen 
some,  and  show  you  new  and  modern  devices  for  shift- 
ing and  easing  others.  Your  alumni  cannot  do  your 
work  for  you  and  should  not  attempt  to,  but  they  can 
and  will  gladly  show  you  new  methods  of  meeting 
modern  conditions  and  of  making  your  labors  more 
pleasant,  efficient  and  rewarding.  But  you  must  decide 
whether  you  will  adopt  such  methods.  You  are  the 
arbiters  of  your  own  fate.  We  can  suggest,  but  ulti- 
mately you  must  decide  the  result.  You  must  be  will- 
ing to  forego  some  things  to  gain  greater  ends.  You 
have  been  individualistic.  You  must  learn  to  be  co- 
operative. You  must  cordially,  nay,  eagerly,  adopt  and 
steadfastly  carry  out  the  modern  world's  great  motto, 
"Team  work,  hard  work  and  good  work";  with  the 
emphasis  so  far  as  you  are  concerned,  let  me  say  again, 
upon  the  team  work;  and  this  means  team  work  with 
your  associates  in  your  own  course,  and  in  the  faculty 
and  in  every  other  department  of  the  college. 

Fifth.  The  student  life  department  must  next  be 
considered  under  its  twofold  nature,  the  college  com- 
munity life  and  the  college  home  life,  corresponding  so 
closely  to  the  business  and  home  life  of  the  ordinary 
citizen ;  but  modified  somewhat  by  the  fact  that  our  col- 


348          The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

lege  citizens  are  not  yet  breadwinners,  but  are  still  more 
or  less  directly  accountable  to  their  parents  who  sup- 
port them. 

The  reorganized  college  must  first  of  all  realize  that 
it  is  dealing  with  men — the  picked  young  men  of  the 
country — for  whom  it  is  responsible  first  of  all  to  the 
country  itself.  They  must  be  treated  as  men,  and  made 
to  bear  the  burdens  and  responsibilities  fitted  to  their 
strength,  and  suited  to  give  them  the  same  kind  of  dis- , 
cipline  which  many  of  their  friends  and  contemporaries 
are  obtaining  in  good  business  houses.  At  twenty  to 
twenty-two,  such  picked  men  in  ordinary  business  life 
would  be  bearing  very  weighty  responsibilities,  and  bear- 
ing them  well  among  men  who  were  many  years  their 
seniors  in  years  and  experience.  More  and  more  the 
direct  burden  of  the  student  government  and  public 
sentiment  of  the  college  and  the  care  of  its  homes  should 
be  put  upon  the  undergraduates,  and  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  interest  them  in  and  prepare  them  for  similar 
problems  in  their  future  lives.  The  investigation  and 
care  of  its  student  life  will  be  one  great  branch  of  college 
work,  for  on  this  ninety  per  cent  of  the  undergraduate's 
time  largely  depend  the  results  of  the  ten  per  cent  passed 
in  the  presence  of  his  teachers. 

The  bounds  limiting  the  college  community  and 
home  lives  will  be  clearly  outlined  and  made  known, 
and  college  justice  will  be  administered  by  a  student's 
peers.  Why  not  recognize  that  there  will  be  politics  in 
every  college,  and  teach  our  young  men  to  play  them  on 
as  clean,  educational  and  helpful  a  scale  as  possible? 
Under  no  circumstances  let  us  leave  the  discipline  of  the 

j 


Resume:  The  Keynote  oj  the  College          349 

individual  to  be  voted  upon  by  the  body  of  the  faculty. 
The  final  word  should  be  with  the  president,  or  with 
some  very  small  group  that  is  in  the  closest  touch  and 
sympathy  with  the  student  body  and  the  college  homes. 
The  college  ideal  should  be  to  anticipate  and  prevent 
the  need  of  discipline  rather  than  to  seek  an  opportunity 
to  administer  it.  The  college  should  follow  the  course 
of  modern  medicine  which  drains  swamps  and  uses  pre- 
ventives; or  of  modern  business  which  avoids  lawsuits 
by  taking  counsel  beforehand. 

The  college  will  study  its  own  social  and  political 
problems  as  carefully  as  it  does  its  educational,  and  will 
let  the  results  be  known.  While  it  maintains  a  clean 
student  atmosphere,  it  will  remember  that  a  large  part 
of  the  preventive  measures  must  be  exerted  in  the  home. 
Here  it  will  avail  itself  of  its  natural  allies,  the  parents 
and  alumni. 

The  fraternity  owes  it  to  its  members  to  provide  them 
with  a  good  college  home.  But  just  as  much  does  the 
college  owe  it  to  every  student  that  he  shall  have  a  good 
home.  In  so  far  as  the  fraternities  furnish  truly  good 
homes  the  college  is  fortunate  in  being  relieved,  to  that 
extent,  of  this  part  of  its  duty.  But  its  duty  still  re- 
mains, so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  nonfraternity  members, 
and  must  not  be  shirked.  Surely  the  fraternities  can- 
not complain  if  the  college  sets  up,  for  its  nonfraternity 
members,  model  homes  which  will  put  every  fraternity 
on  its  mettle.  The  time  must  soon  come  when  the  fra- 
ternities, like  the  colleges,  shall  be  sternly  judged  by 
their  present-day  results,  not  by  their  names  or  history 
or  wealth.  Let  the  colleges  carefully  investigate  and 


350  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

candidly  publish  the  results  in  later  life  and  other  im- 
portant details  as  related  to  home  life  in  the  fraternity 
houses,  the  dormitories,  town  boarding  houses  or  other 
college  homes.  Such  use  of  the  publicity  bureau  would 
draw  attention  to  the  true  conditions  and  lead  to  im- 
portant reforms. 

Here  again  let  competition  be  the  life  of  good  work. 
Every  good  fraternity  ought  to  welcome  the  competi- 
tion of  the  college  in  a  home-making  experiment.  If, 
with  years  of  start  and  with  manifold  advantages,  the 
fraternity  home  cannot  hold  its  own,  it  deserves  to  go 
down.  The  fraternity  may  well  be  voted  a  failure  if  in 
the  long  run  it  cannot  give  to  its  members  more  than 
they  can  get  in  a  home  conducted  by  the  college.  The 
difficulty  is  that  the  college  has  seldom  furnished  any 
opportunity  for  such  a  competition.  It  has  provided 
the  barracks  accommodation  of  a  dormitory,  or  rele- 
gated its  students  to  the  cold  comforts  of  a  student 
boarding  house  in  an  overcrowded  college  town,  but  it 
has  done  substantially  no  home-making  except  in  a  few 
of  the  women's  colleges.  Let  the  college  set  up  a 
model  home,  if  it  can,  and  most  of  its  good  features  will 
be  at  once  adopted  by  the  fraternities,  and  the  whole 
college  home  problem  will  be  much  nearer  solution. 
But  the  college  has  much  to  learn  from  the  experience 
of  the  fraternities  and  must  copy  many  of  the  good 
social  and  home-making  features  of  their  homes.  A 
college  home  must  not  be  too  large,  and  should  have  a 
good  commons,  and  a  cozy  lounging  room,  and  a  good 
floor  for  dancing,  and  as  many  as  possible  of  the  things 
that  go  to  make  the  fraternity  houses  homes,  and  not 


Resume:  The  Keynote  of  the  College  351 

dormitories  or  barracks.  Until  the  college  insures  good 
homes  to  all  its  students,  fraternity  and  nonfraternity 
alike,  it  has  fallen  short  of  its  duty  in  rounding  out  the 
domestic  and  social  side  of  the  character  of  the  future 
citizen,  and  in  properly  providing  for  a  clean  and  help- 
ful college  home  life. 

Admittedly,  municipal  ownership  is  advisable  in  some 
things,  such  as  the  water  supply.  William  H.  Taft  has 
put  this  thought  as  follows: 

"Where  a  general  service  to  the  public  cannot  be  well 
discharged  by  private  enterprise,  and  can  be  effectively  and 
economically  discharged  by  the  government,  the  govern- 
ment should  undertake  it." 

In  like  manner,  it  may  be  advisable  for  the  college  to 
attempt  the  experiment,  not  so  much  of  home-building 
as  of  home-making,  on  a  small  scale  and  in  competition 
with  the  fraternities  and  the  town  boarding  houses. 
Certainly  such  an  attempt  would  be  an  interesting  one 
and  might  have  far-reaching  results. 

As  the  institution  must  assure  a  right  college  atmos- 
phere and  community  life,  it  must  as  surely  see  to  it 
that  every  fraternity  or  other  unofficial  college  home  is 
doing  good  work  for  the  common  good,  and  in  such  a 
way  as  to  enable  the  college  to  fulfill  its  duty  to  the 
state,  to  education  and  to  all  its  higher  aims  and  ideals, 
and  this  duty  should  be  discharged  through  the  home- 
making  forces  of  the  home  itself. 

The  college  home  has  its  great  functions  as  truly  as 
the  home  of  boyhood  or  manhood,  and  that  student  has 
lost  a  large  part  of  the  charm,  educating  and  polishing 
of  his  course  who  has  not  felt  and  contributed  to  the  in- 


352  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

fluences  of  a  fine  college  home  life.  Right  here  lies  the 
power  for  good  or  evil  of  our  college  homes. 

Let  us,  as  college  men,  rise  above  fraternities  or  in- 
stitutions, and  determine  that,  as  parents,  alumni  and 
citizens,  we  will  join  with  all  interested  in  our  institu- 
tions of  higher  learning  to  set  forward  the  cause  of  the 
college  home  life.  The  Home  is  greater  than  any  one 
home  or  series  of  homes,  and  the  College  Home  is  more 
important  than  those  of  any  institution  or  of  any  fra- 
ternity. 

Let  every  parent,  sending  his  son  to  college,  study  the 
home  life  therein,  and  keep  in  touch  with  his  son's  col- 
lege home,  and  demand  of  the  college  that  it  shall  take 
intelligent  care  of  his  college  community  and  home  life. 

Let  us  study  the  college  home  as  a  home,  first,  last 
and  all  the  time,  and  then  we  shall  be  able  to  improve 
it  along  sane  and  effective  lines,  and  give  it  its  proper 
place  between  that  of  the  father  and  that  of  the  bread- 
winner; and  we  shall  not  be  drawn  off  to  side  issues. 

Here,  too,  is  another  great  field  for  cooperation  and 
competition,  with  a  proper  credit  given  to  those  who  do 
good  work;  for  among  the  college  homes,  also,  the  motto 
applies:  "Team  work,  hard  work  and  good  work." 

Sixth.  As  to  the  separate  administrative  depart- 
ment, we  must  remember  that  administration  is  an  ex- 
pense and  a  nonproducer;  that  its  principal  aim  is 
to  make  effective  or  available  the  productive  work  of 
others;  and  that  it  is  chiefly  designed  to  surround  the 
producing  elements  with  service  conditions  without 
which,  in  large  concerns,  they  cannot  work  to  the  best 
advantage. 


Resume:  The  Keynote  of  the  College  353 

Let  us  also  admit  that  a  separate  administrative  de- 
partment in  our  colleges  is  a  necessary  evil  or  adjunct, 
which  has  become  indispensable  because  of  growth  in 
numbers  and  the  intricacy  which  comes  with  modern 
conditions.  Hence  this  new  department  must  be  pro- 
portioned to  the  size  of  the  institution  and  the  number 
of  its  departments  and  courses.  A  department  which 
would  be  sufficient  in  a  small  college  would  be  entirely 
inadequate  in  a  large  one;  a  system  that  would  work 
well  in  a  large  university  would  swamp  a  small  college; 
what  would  be  successful  in  a  private  or  denominational 
college  might  utterly  fail  in  a  state  institution.  It  re- 
quires genius  to  adjust  an  administrative  system  so  that 
it  will  be  neither  too  large  nor  too  small;  so  that  it  shall 
not  go  into  unnecessary  minutiae,  nor  omit  to  cover  im- 
portant details ;  so  that  it  shall  be  neither  niggardly  nor 
extravagant;  and  so  that,  while  encouraging  and  re- 
warding the  faithful,  it  shall  detect  the  laggards.  In  a 
large  sense,  administration  is  a  constant  readjustment  of 
the  affairs  of  others  and  of  its  own  methods. 

College  administration  is  as  yet  in  an  experimental 
stage,  and  must  be  undertaken  conservatively  by  each 
institution  or  group  of  institutions,  until  we  have  the  rec- 
ords of  enough  experiments  to  provide  data  for  gener- 
alization. These  records  should  be  upon  the  same  gen- 
eral plan  and  be  collected  and  collated  by  experts. 

There  are  certain  things  that  ought  to  be  thoroughly 
covered  by  the  administrative  department  in  every  col- 
lege of,  say,  300  or  upward.  It  is  a  matter  of  discre- 
tion, depending  upon  the  size  and  conditions  of  the 
institution,  as  to  whether  these  matters  shall  be  put  un- 


354          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

der  the  charge  of  distinct  bureaus,  or  whether  one  man 
or  bureau  shall  attend  to  several  branches.  For  the 
sake  of  convenience,  I  shall  treat  the  administrative  de- 
partment under  the  heads  of  different  bureaus,  as  must 
be  done  in  our  largest  institutions.  These  suggestions 
are  merely  tentative,  and  in  some  instances  would  need 
considerable  variations.  These  are  the  things  which 
should  be  covered  by  the  new  department;  the  methods 
and  forms  by  which  these  ends  are  to  be  reached  are 
susceptible  of  many  changes.  A  start  in  the  proposed 
system  has  been  made  in  many  institutions,  but  never 
as  a  separate  department  recognized  as  coordinate  and 
coequal  with  all  the  others. 

(i)  The  first  bureau  we  may  call  that  of  statistics 
and  forms.  This  should  be  under  a  skilled  statistician, 
possibly  the  expert  accountant  already  spoken  of,  but 
will  embrace  so  many  different  subjects  that  it  may  re- 
quire subdivision. 

It  will  have  charge  of  and  collect  and  collate  the 
statistics  upon  the  following,  among  other,  matters: 

(a)  The  general  system  of  forms  and  blanks  for  use 
throughout  the  institution,  and  the  particular  forms 
necessary  in  any  part  of  the  institution  to  accomplish 
the  general  purpose  of  the  college,  (b)  The  prepara- 
tion and  supervision  of  any  system  of  blanks  and  forms 
required  to  collect  any  desired  information  or  statistics. 
(c)  The  collecting  of  the  general  statistics  of  the  college 
and  its  students,  now  largely  covered  by  the  office  of  the 
registrar,  who  should  either  be  placed  over  this  bureau 
or  under  its  head,  (d)  The  collection  and  collating  of 
the  results  of  the  class-room  work  of  each  course  and  of 


Resume:  The  Keynote  o)  the  College          355 

each  student  and  of  each  class  of  students,  (e)  The 
preparation  and  oversight  of  a  comprehensive  mark- 
ing system,  and  the  collating  and  rendering  its  results 
readily  available  so  as  to  furnish  data  upon  the  past, 
present  and  future  work  of  each  student.  (/)  A  general 
account  of  stock  of  the  whole  college,  taken  at  least 
yearly,  possibly  quarterly  or  monthly,  and  designed  to 
get  at  the  exact  facts,  whether  favorable  or  unfavorable. 
This  should  also  serve  as  the  general  bureau  for  inter- 
change of  information  within  the  college  itself,  and  as 
the  official  bureau  to  collaborate  with  sister  institutions. 
(2)  The  second  bureau  will  be  that  of  the  college 
waste  heap.  Its  duty  will  be  carefully  to  examine  and 
rectify  the  educational  or  other  factors  which,  before, 
during  and  after  a  student's  course,  tend  to  produce  bad 
work  or  prevent  good  work.  This  will  call  for  a  sharp 
analysis  of  the  preparation,  mental,  moral  and  physi- 
cal, of  those  who  come  from  the  various  preparatory 
schools,  and  hence  of  the  schools  themselves;  of  the  in- 
fluences in  the  college  itself  which  affect,  adversely  or 
otherwise,  the  general  cause  and  course  of  education 
therein;  of  the  reasons  why  individual  students  have  not 
completed  their  course,  and  their  subsequent  history ;  of 
the  general  success  in  after  life  of  each  graduate,  and  his 
suggestions  based  upon  his  own  undergraduate  experi- 
ence. This,  or  some  other  bureau,  must  collate  the  re- 
sults of  various  courses  in  the  college,  and  advise  with 
undergraduates  as  to  their  work  and  courses,  and  act 
in  close  touch  with  a  faculty  committee  on  scholarship. 
The  waste  in  the  teaching  force  is  put  under  the  seventh 
bureau. 


356  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

(3)  A  third  bureau  must  be  that  of  college  activities, 
which  will  study  and  be  responsible  for  the  college  com- 
munity life  and  the  general  student  atmosphere;  which 
will  keep  in  close  touch  with  the  outside  activities  of  the 
college,  and  their  effect  upon  pedagogical  results  and 
upon  the  college  community  and  home  life.     It  must  be 
in  sympathetic  charge  of  the  religious  and  moral  welfare 
of  the  college  as  a  whole,  and  must  supplement  its  work 
by  committees  of  the  faculty  and  students.    This  bu- 
reau must  work  in  the  closest  way  with 

(4)  That  of  the  college  home  life,  which  must  have 
charge,  in  a  large  yet  intimate  way,  of  the  college  homes 
and  their  highest  interests,  as  those  relate  to  their  own 
inmates  or  to  the  course  of  education  in  the  college  it- 
self.   These  last  two  bureaus  come  partly  within  the 
province  of  the  college  dean,  but  that  should  not  prevent 
the  making  of  a  distinct  and  wise  provision  for  the  bu- 
reaus of  college  activities  and  of  the  college  home  life. 
Whatever  else  happens,  these  two  bureaus  must  be  made 
the  most  of. 

(5)  The  bureau  of  health  and  physical  exercises  will 
not  infringe  upon  the  recognized  teams  and  athletics 
of  the  college,  but  will  care  for  the  many  students  who 
are  not  on  any  team  or  under  the  direction  of  any 
trainer.     It  will  make  sure  that  every  man  in  college 
has  compulsory  physical  exercise,  and  graduates  with  a 
good  physique  and  bodily  health,  and  with  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  kinds  of  exercise  without  apparatus 
which  he  can  use  in  his  office  or  home;  that  there  are 
frequent  and  complete  physical  examinations  of  every 
undergraduate  at  unexpected  times,  and  proper  lectures 


Resume:  The  Keynote  of  the  College  357 

upon  his  physical  constitution  and  its  care,  and  upon 
his  home  duties  and  responsibilities  in  after  life.  This 
bureau  will  have  the  power,  for  instance,  to  prescribe 
boxing  and  fencing  lessons  for  those  hard  students  who 
lack  physical  force,  or  dancing  lessons  for  those  who 
need  the  social  graces;  for  in  such  cases  aggressiveness 
and  self-confidence  may  be  the  chief  things  lacking  to 
insure  perfect  usefulness  in  after  years.  This  bureau 
will  be  in  close  touch  with  the  medical  and  physical 
directors. 

(6)  The  sixth  bureau,  that  of  the  graduate  field,  will 
seek  to  follow  the  alumni  and  see  that  they  catch  on  in 
the  world  and  make  real  progress  therein.     It  will  be 
on  the  lookout  for  opportunities,  and    be  a  clearing 
house  for  outsiders  who  are  seeking  the  right  college 
man  for  the  right  place  in  after  years.     It  will  study 
the  curriculum  from  the  light  of  results,  and,  through 
lectures  from  prominent  alumni  and  others,  will  in- 
fluence the  college  community  life  by  making  the  stu- 
dents understand  the  conditions  that  will  face  them 
after  college  and  for  which  their  college  course  must 
prepare  them.     Possibly  this  bureau  may  best  be  com- 
bined with  the  second,  for  their  fields  lie  close  together. 

(7)  The  seventh  bureau,  that  of  the  college  plant, 
will  have  a  general  oversight  over  the  work  of  the  teach- 
ing staff,  to  make  sure  that  each  member  is  doing  his 
best  work  at  the  best  advantage,  that  there  are  no  drones, 
and  that  there  is  no  preventable  waste  in  the  college 
machinery.     Great  care  will  be  taken  to  develop  and 
foster  every  influence  helpful  to  higher  intellectual  and 
educational  ideals  and  methods  within  the  faculty,  or 


358          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

within  its  student  body,  or  in  the  parts  of  the  institution 
common  to  both  faculty  and  students.  If  this  bureau 
is  undertaken  in  the  proper  spirit,  and  is  made  general 
throughout  the  colleges,  it  will  be  of  great  advantage  to 
the  preceptors,  associate  professors  and  other  younger 
teachers,  and  to  the  institutions  themselves;  for  a  misfit 
in  one  college  may  be  made  a  success  in  another,  or  an 
apparent  failure  may  be  made  to  do  good  work  by  some 
change  of  conditions  in  the  same  institution,  and  those 
who  do  good  work  will  find  sure  recognition  for  their 
efforts,  and  the  benumbing  effects  of  the  influences  which 
now  affect  the  lower-grade  teacher  will  be  persistently 
counteracted.  This  bureau  must  work  in  the  closest 
touch  with  the  president,  and  often  only  through  him 
in  delicate  cases. 

(8)  The  eighth  bureau  will  be  that  of  publicity,  which 
will  not,  as  now,  have  the  tendency  to  confine  its  work 
to  advertising  a  successful  coach,  nor  to  improving  the 
betting  odds  by  sending  out  misleading  reports  as  to 
the  members  of  the  teams  or  crews.     It  will  insure  that 
the  educational  work  of  the  institution  and  of  its  best 
men  is  made  known  to  the  world;  that  parents  and 
alumni  are  kept  in  close  touch  with  present  conditions, 
and  that  honor  is  given  where  honor  is  due. 

(9)  Lastly  there  must  be  the  Mark  Hopkins  or  per- 
sonal-equation bureau ;  though  possibly  this  bureau  will 
be  embodied  in  the  chief  of  the  department  himself,  and 
thus  thoroughly  pervade  the  whole  administration.     Its 
motto  must  be  along  the  line  of  the  saying  of  the  late 
Professor  Park,  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary,  who 
used  to  tell  his  students  that  it  was  not  so  important  as 


Rtsume:  The  Keynote  of  the  College          359 

to  how  large  a  college  a  man  had  gone  through,  but 
rather  how  largely  the  college  had  gone  through  him. 

So  far  as  the  administrative  department  deals  with 
administrative  machinery,  it  is  important,  necessary 
and  formative,  but,  after  all,  in  this  respect  it  is  essen- 
tially an  added  expense.  Its  great  glory  and  productive 
value  will  be  in  preserving  and  making  truly  effective 
the  personal  equation  which  was  so  vital  an  element  in 
the  training  of  the  earlier  college  in  its  narrowness  and 
poverty.  Character  -  building  and  the  power  of  the 
older  man  and  scholar  upon  the  younger  man  and  stu- 
dent are  the  great  things  which  stand  out  as  we  study 
these  earlier  temples  of  learning;  and  these  must  still 
be  the  great  underlying  ideals  of  our  college  training 
for  citizenship.  The  college  must  more  and  more — 
and  ever  more — use  and  insure  the  use  of  the  personal 
manhood  and  scholarship  of  the  teacher  to  engender 
manhood  and  scholarliness,  if  not  scholarship,  in  the 
taught.  One  great  professor,  every  inch  a  man  and 
equally  a  scholar,  and  preeminently  a  fructifying  force 
for  character  and  scholarliness,  writes: 

"Your  system  seems  to  me  to  threaten  over-organization 
and  excessive  centralization,  harmful  to  teacher  and  student 
through  killing  spontaneity.  When  the  college  comes  to  be 
as  completely  organized  as  our  most  successful  business  cor- 
porations, is  there  not  a  risk  that  it  will  produce  well  made, 
accurately  adjusted  cogs  and  wheels,  etc.,  for  the  great  so- 
cial machine,  rather  than  men  of  initiative,  possessing  in  them- 
selves and  respecting  in  others  the  disposition  and  power  to 
grow  each  in  his  own  way?" 

If  this  be  so,  then  is  my  message  a  failure.  The  stu- 
dent who  does  not  carry  away  from  Alma  Mater's  halls 


360          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

the  deep  impress  upon  his  innermost  life  of  some  one  or 
more  great  men  and  scholars  has  indeed  missed  the 
chief  thing  in  his  training  for  citizenship.  Far  better 
to  leave  college  in  one  year  with  this  impress  than  to 
leave  it  at  the  end  of  four  years  with  merely  a  marking- 
system  diploma. 

There  is  much  of  the  machinery  of  a  separate  admin- 
istrative department  which  is  of  the  most  machine  and 
perfunctory  kind — to  accomplish  machine  results.  The 
increasing  extent  of  the  college  plant  requires  this.  But 
the  personal  equation  of  the  teacher  is  still  the  great 
character-building  force  in  the  course,  whether  it  be  one 
year  or  four  in  length,  and  the  college  as  an  institution 
exists  that  it  may  gather  together  the  great  collection  of 
manhood  and  scholarliness  and  character-building  force 
which  is  represented  in  the  picked  individuals  of  a  good 
faculty.  This  power  for  character-building  and  schol- 
arliness is,  after  all,  the  true  capital  of  the  college — not 
its  funds,  or  its  buildings,  or  its  material  wealth  of  any 
kind.  All  these  latter  things  are  as  much  mere  me- 
chanical instruments  as  is  its  administrative  department 
and  machinery.  Above  all  things,  the  college  has  no 
right  to  waste,  unnecessarily,  a  single  jot  or  tittle  of  its 
character  and  scholarship  building  capital.  To  min- 
imize any  loss  at  this  very  point  and  in  this  very  respect 
is  the  great  duty  of  the  personal-equation  bureau.  The 
loss  in  this  respect  is  terribly  and  unnecessarily — nay, 
even  criminally — great  to-day  under  present  college 
methods.  Indeed  the  administrative  department  must 
have  for  its  paramount  aim  to  keep  constantly  em- 
ployed, at  their  utmost  efficiency,  every  element  of  the 


Resume:  The  Keynote  0}  the  College          361 

college  economy  and  capital — the  funds,  the  buildings 
and  other  material  plant;  the  impersonal  machinery; 
the  student  life;  most  of  all  the  college  history  and  tra- 
ditions, and  the  college  spirit,  and  the  manhood  and 
scholarship,  individually  and  collectively,  of  the  faculty. 
Here  is  where  the  college  course  is  to  guide  the  footsteps 
of  the  lad  as  he  prepares  to  enter  the  larger  life  of  his 
business  or  profession.  Here  is  the  point  where  the 
personal-equation  bureau  can  collaborate  most  efficiently 
and  payingly  with  the  waste-heap  bureau. 

Again  and  again  we  must  remember  that  adminis- 
tration, except  for  definite  uses  and  ends,  is  an  unneces- 
sary and  almost  unproductive  expense;  but  the  admin- 
istration which  gets  additional  return  upon  the  college 
capital  of  men  and  character  is  not  an  unnecessary  ex- 
pense, but  rather  a  vital  necessity  if  we  would  avoid  a 
terrible  waste  of  the  most  precious  heritage  of  the  in- 
stitution. And  I  would  have  this  bureau  exert  itself 
most  constantly  and  forcefully  at  the  very  beginning  of 
the  freshman  year.  This  is  the  time  of  highest  purpose 
and  of  least  resistance  to  good  moral  influences.  There 
is  no  doubt  in  my  mind,  from  a  fairly  broad  experience 
in  college  homes,  that  the  average  college  graduate  has 
higher  ideals  and  hopes  at  the  time  when  he  enters  col- 
lege than  at  any  other  time  in  his  life.  He  has  left  home 
and  the  preparatory  school  with  a  feeling  that  he  must 
now  show  what  is  in  him,  and  that  he  is  standing  alone 
for  the  first  time.  In  many  cases  he  appreciates  the 
serious  inconveniences  and  even  sacrifices  which  the 
loved  ones  at  home  are  making  for  him.  His  ambitions 
are  high  and  his  purposes  pure.  It  is  at  this  time  that 


362  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

both  the  college  and  the  fraternity  too  often  offer  to  him 
a  stone.  The  harm  done  at  this  point  of  his  develop- 
ment, when  his  community  life  is  unfolding,  may  never 
be  undone.  But  just  as  surely  the  good  purposes,  which 
are  then  regnant  within  him,  may  be  solidified  into  per- 
manent character  by  the  right  treatment.  It  should 
be  one  of  the  high  duties  of  the  personal-equation  bu- 
reau to  insure  that  each  undergraduate  has  the  right 
surroundings  and  help  at  the  critical  periods  throughout 
his  college  course — but  especially  at  its  beginning. 

Over  all  and  throughout  all  these  bureaus,  and  in- 
spiring them  all,  will  be  the  chief  of  the  administrative 
department,  who  will  soon  come  to  be  regarded  as  the 
most  indispensable  man  in  college,  for  he  will  be  at  the 
service  of  everyone.  But  most  of  all  he  and  his  depart- 
ment will  be  the  chief  exponents  and  champions  of  the 
college  motto : "  Team  work,  hard  work  and  good  work." 
He  will  be  the  master  spirit  in  keeping  up  enthusiasm 
for  higher  things.  He  will  be  proud  of  his  system,  not 
because  it  is  complete,  or  intricate  or  scientific,  but  be- 
cause it  does  things,  and  makes  the  crooked  straight 
and  the  rough  places  plain,  and  restores  individual 
training  in  the  college.  He  will  be  wise  enough  and 
broad  enough  and  strong  enough  to  vary  his  system 
when  it  works  badly,  to  ease  it  if  it  bears  too  harshly  at 
any  one  point  and  to  improve  it  constantly.  This  de- 
partment and  its  head  will  be  the  right  hand  of  the 
president,  making  it  possible  for  him  to  formulate  and 
carry  out  new  and  higher  policies  without  the  nervous 
wear  and  tear  that  must  otherwise  ensue. 

Seventh.     But  the  president  must  be  a  man  trained 


Resume:  The  Keynote  of  the  College          363 

to  avail  himself  of  a  scientifically  conducted  administra- 
tive department.  Possibly  this  may  result  in  our  having 
and  requiring  a  scientific  business  and  factory  training 
for  college  presidents;  for  the  president  of  the  reorgan- 
ized college  must  be,  not  only  a  great  man  by  nature,  but 
one  especially  trained  to  assume  so  high  a  position  and 
to  safeguard  interests  that  mean  so  much  to  the  com- 
monwealth and  to  all  within  it.  It  will  also  be  of  great 
advantage  if  he  shall  have  acted  for  a  few  years  as  the 
traveling  secretary  of  a  fraternity,  and  thus  have  sym- 
pathetically studied,  from  the  undergraduates*  stand- 
point, the  student  life  of  many  institutions. 

Eighth.  As  there  must  be  a  distinct  cleavage  between 
the  various  departments  of  the  college,  so  there  must  be 
an  increasingly  distinct  differentiation  between  the  college 
and  the  university  or  graduate  schools,  and  the  statistics 
gathered  by  our  administrative  department  will  enable 
us  to  work  this  out  more  scientifically  and  satisfactorily. 

Ninth.  The  functions  of  the  board  of  control  or  of 
trustees  will  be  carefully  worked  out,  so  that  the  board 
shall  help  in  a  large  way,  rather  than  hinder,  the  best 
possible  internal  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  col- 
lege by  the  several  departments  which  are  on  the  ground 
and  directly  responsible  for  results. 

Reorganization  will  not  imply  a  shifting  of  old  faces, 
but  rather  a  bringing  in  of  new  forces  and  the  intro- 
duction of  new  methods  looking  toward  like,  but  even 
higher,  ends  than  were  formerly  possible.  The  re- 
organizer  will  be  the  coach  who  can  show  those  within 
the  institution  how  to  put  into  effect  team  work,  hard 
work  and  good  work. 


364          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

Tenth.  The  one  subject  which  now  is  required  of 
every  student  in  every  course  and  every  college  is  English 
To  this  will  be  added  another — citizenship.  If  anything, 
this  should  be  considered  the  more  important  of  the 
two,  and  should  be  taught  in  connection  with  the  actual 
government  of  the  student  body  and  activities.  There 
should  be  a  department  of  citizenship  in  its  largest 
sense,  just  as  there  is  a  department  of  English.  The 
prime  object  of  this  course  should  be  to  inculcate  the 
highest  ideals  and  exercise  of  citizenship.  It  should  be 
a  freshman  study,  and  eventually  an  entrance  require- 
ment also.  The  college  should  be  governed,  as  far  as 
possible,  upon  the  model  of  the  state,  with  its  upper  and 
lower  houses  for  legislation,  and  its  legislative,  judiciary 
and  financial  systems  to  control  student  activities.  The 
college  should  not  study  to  see  how  little  of  real  power 
it  can  give  over  to  the  student  government,  but  how  far 
it  can  perform  its  duty  to  the  commonwealth  by  forcing 
these  embryo  citizens  to  learn  and  exercise  those  civic, 
public  and  political  functions  and  duties  upon  which 
the  future  well-being  of  the  state  may  at  some  time  or 
place  depend.  The  exercise  of  the  franchise  or  of  stu- 
dent activity  should  be  extended  as  far  as  possible,  and 
be  made  compulsory  and  a  requisite  for  advancement 
in  college.  The  course  in  citizenship  should  be  the  most 
important  in  the  institution;  it  should  be  founded  upon 
and  work  in  the  college  home,  the  college  community 
and  the  college  state;  and  thus  teach  concretely  the 
things  which  go  to  make  a  clean  and  cultured  father, 
husband  and  friend,  a  successful  professional  or  busi- 
ness man,  and  an  upright  and  energetic  citizen  and  prac- 


Resume:  The  Keynote  o)  the  College          365 

tical  politician — in  the  sense  that  Lincoln  and  McKinley 
were  great  practical  politicians.  All  this  would  help  to 
make  clearer  to  every  undergraduate  the  true  aim  of  his 
college  education — to  enable  him  to  find  himself  and  to 
train  him  for  after  life  in  the  different  planes  of  that  life 
as  a  citizen. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  over  the  portals  of  every 
educational  institution  should  be  written  the  word 
" Service";  and  surely  this  is  true,  preeminently,  of  our 
colleges  and  their  training  for  citizenship.  McClure's 
Magazine  for  October,  1908,  shows  how,  in  our  country, 

"One  type  of  citizen — men  of  force  and  enterprise  un- 
surpassed in  the  history  of  the  world — by  adapting  the  dis- 
coveries of  the  most  inventive  century  of  the  world  to  the 
uses  of  commerce,  have  massed  together  in  the  past  half 
century  a  chain  of  great  cities  upon  the  face  of  a  half  savage 
continent,  and  left  them  to  the  government  of  the  Euro- 
pean peasant  saloon-keeper," 

who  has  become  a  political  leader  among  the  immi- 
grants who  have  stopped  and  swarmed  in  our  cities. 
Hence  while 

"  the  commercial  enterprise  of  these  cities  has  been  the 
marvel  of  the  world,  their  government  has  reached  a  point 
of  moral  degradation  and  inefficiency  scarcely  less  than 
Oriental." 

The  charge  is  true,  in  part  because  the  colleges  have 
not  of  later  years  distinctly  trained  for  citizenship,  es- 
pecially upon  the  high  plane  of  duty  toward  the  state. 
It  is  not  too  late  for  them  to  mend  and  to  assume  their 
former  leadership,  but  no  time  must  be  lost.  I  am 
not  afraid  to  repeat  that  the  earlier  college  course 
trained  for  a  broad,  clean  and  efficient  citizenship  in  all 


366  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

its  planes,  and  not  for  marks;  that  for  many  years  past 
the  college  course  has  trained  chiefly  for  marks  and 
a  leveling  and  low-grade  diploma;  that  henceforth  the 
keynote  of  the  college  course  must  be  training  for 
citizenship  quite  regardless  of  its  diploma  value;  and 
that  this  keynote,  which  will  not  be  an  easy  one  to 
strike,  must  be  kept  constantly  before  every  individual 
and  course  and  department  of  the  college  through  a 
separate  administrative  department,  acting  as  the  pro- 
fessional coach  and  having  for  its  motto:  "Team  work, 
hard  work  and  good  work." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

CAN  WE  HAVE  A  NEW  FORM  OF  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 
UNIVERSITY? 

POSSIBLY  this  radical  reorganization  of  our  indi- 
vidual institutions  may  be  our  opportunity  to  give  our 
higher  education  a  new  and  strictly  American  form  and 
content.  Possibly  the  present  seething  mass  is  not  so 
chaotic  as  it  seems,  but  may  be  permeated  with  a  spirit 
of  new  life  and  growth,  which,  as  so  often  before,  will 
bring  great  and  concrete  gains  out  of  apparent  con- 
fusion. 

The  first  form  of  our  college  was  taken  almost  en- 
tirely from  English  schools  and  colleges,  not  univer- 
sities. The  present  form  of  university-college  has  been 
largely  affected  by  the  Germanic  ideals.  It  is  now  time 
for  us  to  work  out  new  ideals  of  the  American  college 
and  university  which,  while  standing  on  the  earlier 
foundations,  shall  be  the  products  of  and  in  entire  ac- 
cord with  our  own  modern  civilization  and  social  and 
educational  conditions.  Let  us  not  be  ashamed  if  this 
be  a  typically  American  business  reorganization  of  our 
institutions  of  higher  learning,  closely  following  the 
plans  which  have  been  so  successful  in  our  great  com- 
mercial corporations,  and  using  the  same  human  agen- 
cies which  have  so  often  succeeded  in  other  fields.  Cer- 

367 


368  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

tainly  we  have  had  sufficiently  bad  net  results  from  the 
ecclesiastico-germanic,  pedagogical  methods,  and  almost 
anything  would  be  better  than  that  which  we  have  yet 
worked  out. 

If  we  are  to  undertake  this  greater  task  of  remodelling 
our  system  as  well  as  of  reorganizing  our  individual 
institutions,  let  us  immediately  proceed  on  the  broad 
lines  of  the  engineer  or  architect,  and  lay  out  our  scheme 
in  its  entirety.  In  building,  alterations  are  expensive. 
Let  us,  then,  spend  time  and  money  to  get  our  plans 
right  before  we  begin  permanent  construction.  There 
is  much  clearing  of  the  ground  which  can  and  should 
be  done  at  once,  and  at  any  cost.  This  should  be  done 
by  the  various  institutions  for  themselves;  but  the  final 
plan  must  provide  for  a  solid  foundation  and  a  super- 
structure worthy  of  our  time  and  country,  adapted  to 
use  all  our  present  material,  and  sufficient  for  our 
present  and  future  wants. 

The  first  thing  is  the  formulation  of  a  definition  of  the 
college  and  of  the  university.  Is  it  improper  for  a  lay- 
man to  suggest  that  this  should  be  a  definition  which 
defines,  rather  than  one  which  begs  the  question  and 
misleads  the  public  and  everyone  connected  with  higher 
learning?  If  there  can  be  a  sharp  cleavage  between 
the  college  and  the  university,  well  and  good.  But  if 
that  is  impossible  for  the  present,  let  us  at  least  work  out 
a  definition,  and  build  up  to  it  as  the  years  go  on.  A 
good  definition  helps  to  clarify  our  ideas  upon  the  mat- 
ter defined,  and  sometimes  prevents  fraud.  The  law 
knows  the  great  value  of  a  definition  for  such  purposes, 
and  accordingly  the  statutes  are  filled  with  exact  defini- 


New  Form  of  College  and  University        369 

tions  of  rights,  and  kinds  of  property,  and  as  well  of 
kinds  of  frauds  and  crimes,  and  of  the  duties  and  limita- 
tions of  the  citizen,  etc.  For  example,  in  New  York 
State,  the  statute  provides  that 

"No  corporation  shall  be  hereafter  organized  under  the 
laws  of  this  state,  with  the  word  trust,  bank,  banking,  in- 
surance, assurance,  indemnity,  guarantee,  guaranty,  sav- 
ings, investment,  loan  or  benefit  as  part  of  its  name,  except 
a  corporation  formed  under  the  banking  law  or  the  insurance 
law."  ' 

Probably  it  is  too  much  to  hope  that  for  the  present  a 
definite  meaning  will  be  given  by  statute  to  the  words 
"college"  and  "university,"  and  their  improper  use  for- 
bidden; but  this  is  something  that  we  may  aspire  to  in 
the  future  when  our  ideas  and  ideals  of  higher  educa- 
tion have  been  raised  and  clarified.  We  have  spent 
much  time,  thought  and  money  in  differentiating  our 
kindergartens,  and  primary,  grammar  and  high  schools, 
and  we  tell  of  the  ages  of  the  children  which  each  of 
those  grades  should  cover.  Possibly  we  shall  even- 
tually be  able  to  get  a  satisfactory  definition  of  the 
higher  members  of  our  educational  institutions.  At  the 
same  time  we  shall  come  to  understand  clearly  that  the 
colleges  and  universities  are  not  a  matter  of  years  but 
of  different  stages  of  mental  growth  and  education. 
The  place  of  the  college  will  be  fixed  and  understood, 
and  there  will  be  a  distinct  kind  of  teaching  especially 
adapted  to  college  work,  and  well  differentiated  from 
the  teaching  in  university  or  graduate  schools. 

Such  a  plan,  which  shall  intelligently  define  the  place 

1  Corporation  Law,  §  6. 


370          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

and  scope  of  the  college,  can  be  fully  and  adequately- 
worked  out  only  by  the  fullest  cooperation  of  high- 
school,  college  and  graduate-school  teachers  and  prin- 
cipals; of  the  educational  institutions  themselves,  and 
of  the  great  educational  funds,  and  of  the  general  and 
state  governments;  of  broadminded  professional  men 
and  equally  broadminded  business  men;  of  those  who 
know  what  is  due  to  the  state,  the  institution,  the 
teacher,  the  pupil,  the  citizen  and  the  family.  Such  a 
plan  must  provide  for  training  accurate  and  fine  schol- 
ars, broad  thinkers,  patriotic  and  efficient  citizens, 
splendid  professional  men,  and  leaders  in  every  walk 
of  life,  that  thereby  the  college  and  university  may  do 
their  full  duty.  The  plan  must  also  provide  against  all 
kinds  of  waste;  for  avoidable  waste  in  the  college  is 
criminal  in  the  highest  sense.  By  intelligent  training 
we  must  fit  strong  men  and  thinkers  to  help  us  meet 
the  critical  social  and  political  questions  which  con- 
front us  at  home  and  abroad.  There  is  no  greater 
problem  before  our  country  to-day  than  to  formulate 
the  ideal  of  the  new  American  college  and  university, 
for,  until  this  is  done,  college  reorganization,  as  dis- 
cussed herein,  must  be  largely  a  dream.  Individual  in- 
stitutions will  not  often  have  the  courage  to  lay  the  ax 
to  the  root  of  the  tree,  and  the  work  will  proceed  in  a 
desultory  manner.  But  if  a  more  or  less  comprehensive 
plan  can  be  devised,  public  sentiment  and  college  pride 
will  work  together,  as  in  the  past,  to  bring  most  institu- 
tions to  the  highest  level  to  which,  at  the  time,  they  are 
capable  of  rising.  Competition  is  the  life  of  our  college 
world  to-day,  and  competition  in  a  race  for  a  perfect 


New  Form  oj  College  and  University         371 

realization  of  our  new  ideal  would  accomplish  more 
than  any  other  agency  to  bring  about  a  universal  im- 
provement in  conditions. 

But  this  new  and  comprehensive  ideal  can  be  for- 
mulated only  through  a  board  of  uniquely  equipped 
experts  of  recognized  standing,  acting  for  a  number  of 
years,  on  adequate  salaries  and  with  an  adequate  ex- 
pense fund.  They  must  not  only  have  the  ability  to 
dissect  and  analyze  present  conditions,  but  be  qualified 
for  one  of  the  greatest  pieces  of  constructive  work  and 
reorganization  ever  undertaken.  The  cause  of  educa- 
tion in  this  country,  the  parents  and  the  children,  the 
great  industries  and  professions,  all  who  are  interested 
in  the  question  of  education — and  that  is  everyone  in 
this  broad  land — should  unite  to  bring  about  such  a 
magnificent  and  comprehensive  plan  for  doing  our  full 
duty  to  our  country  and  to  the  generations  yet  unborn. 
We  should  not  rest  content  until  we  have  formulated 
and  worked  out  this  great  monument  to  the  construct- 
ive genius  of  our  country,  and  especially  adapted  to 
her  peculiar  wants  and  characteristics.  Such  a  board 
might  eventually  become  the  governmental  agency  for 
testing  and  comparing  our  great  institutions  and  their 
methods  and  results,  and  thus  aid  and  force  everyone 
to  better  and  better  work.  There  must  be  the  great 
principle  and  motto  of  team  work,  hard  work  and  good 
work  underlying  alike  our  football,  our  individual  col- 
lege and  our  new  ideal  of  the  great  series  of  institutions 
originating  in  American  conditions  and  adjusted  to 
American  needs  and  problems.  Its  successful  appli- 
cation in  any  of  these  fields  will  make  it  easier  to  apply 


372  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

it  successfully  in  the  others,  if  we  only  turn  to  the  very 
best  that  there  is  in  what  we  are  attempting  to  do. 

It  is  proper  that  the  general  government,  or  some 
agency  upon  its  behalf,  should  be  directly  concerned  in 
formulating  our  new  conception  of  the  American  college 
and  university.  Great  as  have  been  the  duties  of  these 
institutions  to  the  state  in  the  past,  the  calls  upon  them 
in  the  future  must  be  much  greater,  and  the  colleges 
must  be  constituted  accordingly.  They  must  be  quali- 
fied in  every  way  to  be  the  leaders  in  our  great  reforms, 
but  to  this  end  they  must  clean  up  their  own  houses. 

Meanwhile,  each  institution  must  at  once  undertake 
the  formation  of  an  up-to-date  administrative  depart- 
ment, and  from  that  as  a  starting  point  provide  for  the 
cleaning  up  and  ennobling  of  its  college  homes  and  its 
general  student  life.  In  these  things  it  must  cordially 
collaborate  with  its  natural  rivals  and  competitors, 
whose  local  surroundings  must  much  resemble  its  own. 
And  it  must  not  be  surprised  if  it  finds  that  in  its  new 
attempt  to  build  up  a  modern,  adequate  administrative 
department,  it  has  to  turn  to  business  men  or  public 
accountants  for  the  experience  which  no  pedagogue  can 
furnish. 

The  distinct  differentiation  and  development  of  the 
college  state,  the  college  community  and  the  college 
home  will  add  three  new  factors  of  strength  to  enable 
us  to  work  out  the  problems  presented  in  these  three 
planes  of  the  life  of  the  student  citizen. 

First.  If  our  college  education  is  to  be  distinctly 
nationalized,  and  to  be  primarily  for  the  training  of 
problem  solvers  and  thinkers  in  citizenship  and  clean 


f    UNlVtH 
V 

v^/^L.; 

New  Form  of  College  and  University          373 

manhood,  it  follows  that  the  institutions  which  fully 
adopt  this  new  ideal  may  be  entitled  to  direct  national 
or  state  aid.  In  the  past  the  nation,  the  states  and  the 
local  municipal  governments  have  given  generously  in 
educational  crises  or  to  provide  permanent  funds  for 
educational  purposes.  Possibly  the  same  thing  will  be 
done  again  if  help  is  needed  in  an  endeavor  to  formulate 
a  new  system  and  ideal  of  higher  education. 

Second.  If  the  colleges  are  to  reorganize  their  com- 
munity life  upon  true  business  principles,  they  will  call 
for  and  get  the  aid  of  their  best  business  alumni  and  of 
a  high  grade  of  noncollege  business  men,  who  will  take 
a  new  interest  in  the  institutions  which  are  thus  to 
undertake  a  new  work  in  preparing  their  undergradu- 
ates for  business  and  the  professions.  This  aid  will  be 
even  greater  than  any  that  can  be  given  by  the  state. 

Third.  But  if  the  institutions  of  higher  learning  are 
to  reorganize  their  college  homes,  they  will  call  for  and 
surely  have  the  cordial  cooperation  of  the  parents  of 
the  land,  who  now  too  often  and  too  justly  look  askance 
at  a  course  in  college;  and  who  shall  say  that  the  aid, 
financial  and  otherwise,  of  the  parents  will  not  be  the 
greatest  of  all?  It  will  largely  include  the  alumni  and 
will  force  action  by  the  state. 

The  state,  the  community  and  the  home — these 
three;  but  the  greatest  of  these  is  the  home. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX  No.  I1 

Your  Committee  believe  that  if  the  Association  is  to  un- 
dertake— as  they  think  it  should  undertake — the  standard- 
ization of  American  universities,  another  criterion  should 
also  be  enforced.  The  policy  contemplated  has  to  do  with 
the  conditions  of  admission  to  professional  courses.  Your 
Committee  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  best  American  uni- 
versities will  in  the  future  rest  their  professional  courses  on  a 
basis  of  college  work,  which  shall  range  from  one  to  four 
years,  and  that  the  professional  student  will  spend  at  least 
five  or  six  years  in  study  from  the  day  he  matriculates  in  the 
college  to  the  day  he  receives  his  professional  degree.  Your 
Committee  accordingly  recommend  that  the  Association 
adopt  as  a  second  criterion  for  membership  the  requirement 
of  one  or  more  years  of  college  work  as  a  prerequisite  for 
admission  to  professional  courses,  the  combination  being  so- 
arranged  that  no  professional  degree  shall  be  given  until  the 
satisfactory  completion  of  at  least  five  years  of  study. 

The  ideal  of  your  Committee  is  the  combination  of  this 
requirement  with  the  present  requirement  of  a  strong  grad- 
uate school  as  a  condition  for  membership  in  this  Associa- 
tion. But  they  recognize  that  a  strict  enforcement  of  both 
requirements  might  work  substantial  hardship  at  the  present 
time.  Nevertheless  they  think  that  in  universities  which 
have  professional  schools  and  a  graduate  department  it  is 
not  too  much  to  ask  at  the  present  time  that  the  graduate 
department  shall  be  at  least  creditable  and  that  the  arts 
and  technical  work  prescribed  for  professional  degrees  in  at 
1  Page  6. 
377 


378  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

least  one  professional  school  shall  be  not  less  than  five  years. 
It  is  the  thought  of  your  Committee  that  if  this  dual  stand- 
ard of  admission  be  now  accepted  by  the  Association  it  may 
be  possible  to  enforce  it  with  increasing  strictness  as  the 
years  go  by.  They  feel,  however,  that  a  step  of  the  utmost 
importance  would  be  taken  if  the  Association  now  insisted 
on  the  dual  requirement,  even  though  in  administering  it 
concessions  were,  for  a  few  years,  made  to  some  universities 
which  were  strong  in  the  one  direction,  but  not  so  fully  de- 
veloped in  the  other.  Your  Committee  are  of  the  opinion 
that  American  universities  cannot  be  justly  standardized 
with  reference  to  graduate  departments  alone;  the  require- 
ment of  a  general  or  liberal  education  as  a  prerequisite  to 
professional  study  along  with  an  extension  of  the  period  of 
study  for  professional  students  being,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
Committee,  an  important  consideration.  They  are  of  the 
opinion  that  American  universities  should  be  standardized 
with  reference  to  these  two  criteria. 


APPENDIX  No.  II1 

"The  number  of  students,  or  the  'bigness*  of  the  college 
or  university,  is  probably  the  most  useful  method  of  classi- 
fication. But  in  regard  to  the  number  of  students  one  finds 
a  range  continuous  from  institutions  with  fifty  students  to 
institutions  with  five  thousand,  and  if  in  this  continuous 
series  arbitrary  lines  are  drawn,  the  groups  thus  made  put 
together  institutions  whose  consideration,  side  by  side,  could 
serve  no  useful  purpose;  for  instance,  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity with  the  University  of  Southern  California,  Yale  Uni- 
versity with  the  Temple  College,  and  Williams  College  with 
Maryville  College. 

1  Page  7. 


Appendix  379 

"The  size  of  the  teaching  staff  would  naturally  be  con- 
sidered a  more  scientific  method  of  classification,  but  here 
again  there  is  a  continuous  gradation  from  institutions  with 
five  to  institutions  with  five  hundred  teachers,  and  groups 
selected  on  this  basis  would  result  in  such  incongruities  as 
placing  Valparaiso  University  with  Leland  Stanford  Junior 
University,  Union  College,  Nebraska,  with  Amherst  College, 
and  Howard  College  at  Birmingham,  Alabama,  with  Ripon 
College. 

"The  maintenance  of  professional  schools  might  be  con- 
sidered as  a  significant  line  of  cleavage,  but  such  a  means 
of  demarcation,  which  would  put  in  the  supposedly  less  im- 
portant group  Princeton,  Brown,  Wesleyan,  Vassar,  Bryn 
Mawr,  and  Trinity  (Hartford),  and  in  the  higher  group  such 
institutions  as  Hamline  University,  Epworth  University, 
Baylor  University,  Kansas  City  University,  and  some  forty 
or  fifty  other  essentially  minor  institutions,  cannot  be  con- 
sidered an  illuminating  classification. 

"The  presence  of  a  certain  number  of  resident  graduate 
students  is  a  significant  feature  of  an  institution  for  higher 
education,  and  might  be  used  to  advantage  in  a  classification 
if  graduate  students  in  the  various  institutions  had  to  com- 
ply with  similar  requirements  before  being  enrolled.  It  is 
true  that  the  graduate  student  must  have  received  a  college 
degree,  but  a  collegiate  degree  in  the  United  States  means 
anything  from  a  bachelor  of  arts  or  a  bachelor  of  science  of 
such  an  institution  as  the  Ohio  Northern  University,  Ada, 
Ohio,  up  to  the  bachelor  of  arts  and  bachelor  of  science  of 
such  universities  as  Columbia  and  the  University  of  Chicago. 
Until  the  collegiate  degrees  begin  to  have  a  definite  mean- 
ing, it  will  be  futile  to  base  any  classification  upon  the 
graduate  schools,  which  essentially  rest  upon  these  de- 


grees." ' 


Carnegie  Foundation  Bulletin,  No.  Two,  p.  2. 


380  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

The  classification  by  the  amount  of  the  annual  income  is 
shown  to  be  equally  unsatisfactory. 

"Since  American  colleges  and  universities  fail  under  any 
system  of  classification  to  fall  into  natural  groups,  the  only 
available  method  is  to  choose  arbitrarily  a  system  which  is 
most  useful  for  the  purpose  in  view." 


APPENDIX  No.  Ill1 

CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  STUDENT  REP- 
RESENTATIVES APPROVED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY 
COUNCIL,  APRIL  ai,  1908. 

ARTICLE  I 

There  is  hereby  constituted  a  board  to  be  known  as  The 
Board  of  Student  Representatives  of  Columbia  University. 

ARTICLE  II 
The  object  of  this  Board  shall  be: 

(1)  To  furnish  a  representative  body  of  men  who,  by  vir- 
tue of  their  position  and  influence  in  student  affairs,  shall  be 
able  to  express  the  opinion  and  wishes  of  the  students. 

(2)  To  encourage  student  activities,  to  make  regulations 
for  the  control  and  conduct  of  the  same,  and  to  decide  mat- 
ters of  dispute  between  student  organizations,  in  so  far  as 
the  exercise  of  these  functions  does  not  conflict  with  Uni- 
versity legislation. 

(3)  To  provide  a  suitable  medium  through  which  student 
opinion  may  be  presented  to  the  University  authorities. 

ARTICLE  III 

The  Board  shall  consist  of  nine  members;  one  to  be  elected 
from  the  College,  by  vote  of  College  students;  one  to  be 
elected  from  the  Schools  of  Mines,  Engineering  and  Chem- 
1  Page  78. 


Appendix  381 

istry,  by  vote  of  students  of  those  Schools;  one  to  be  elected 
from  the  School  of  Law  by  vote  of  Law  students;  and  six  to 
be  elected,  without  restriction  of  School,  from  the  student 
body  at  large,  as  provided  for  in  Article  VI  of  this  Constitu- 
tion. The  Board  so  elected  shall  assume  office  on  the  day 
after  Commencement;  and  shall  hold  office  during  the  en- 
suing academic  year.  Six  members  of  the  Board  shall  con- 
stitute a  quorum. 

ARTICLE  IV 

(1)  To  be  eligible  for  election  from  the  College  a  student 
must  be,  at  the  time  of  the  election,  a  regularly  matriculated 
student  in  the  College  and  of  Junior  standing. 

(2)  To  be  eligible  for  election  from  the  Schools  of  Mines, 
Engineering  and  Chemistry  a  student  must  be,  at  the  time  of 
the  election,  a  regularly  matriculated  member  of  the  Third 
Year  Class  in  one  of  such  Schools. 

(3)  To  be  eligible  for  election  from  the  School  of  Law  a 
student  must  be,  at  the  time  of  the  election,  a  regularly 
matriculated  student  in  such  School  intending  to  continue 
his  studies  therein  during  the  ensuing  year. 

(4)  To  be  eligible  for  election  from  the  student  body  at 
large,  a  student  must  be  at  the  time  of  the  election  a  regu- 
larly matriculated  student  in  Columbia  University  intending 
to  continue  his  studies  therein  during  the  ensuing  year. 

ARTICLE  V 
Each  candidate  for  election  from 

(a)  the  College 

(b)  the  Schools  of  Mines,  Engineering  and  Chemistry 

(c)  the  School  of  Law 

must  be  nominated  by  a  member  of  that  student  body  which 
the  candidate  represents,  and  must  be  seconded  by  at  least 
nine  other  members  of  that  body. 


382  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

Each  candidate  for  election  from 
(d)  the  student  body  at  large 

must  be  nominated  by  a  member  of  the  student  body  and  sec- 
onded by  nine  others,  but  no  restriction  of  School  is  imposed. 

All  nominations  must  be  filed  in  writing  in  the  office  of 
the  Registrar  at  least  two  weeks  before  the  first  day  of  the 
election  period. 

Nominations  not  complying  with  these  conditions  shall 
not  be  considered. 

ARTICLE  VI 

The  members  of  the  Board  shall  be  chosen  at  elections 
held  as  follows: 

(1)  During  the  first  week  of  the  second  half  of  the  aca- 
demic year,  the  student  bodies  of  (a)  the  College,  (b)  the 
Schools  of  Mines,  Engineering  and  Chemistry,  (c)  the  School 
of  Law,  shall  each  elect  a  representative  to  membership  on 
the  Board  of  the  following  year,  with  the  privilege  of  at- 
tending without  vote  ail  meetings  of  the  then  active  Board. 

(2)  During  the  last  week  of  April  of  the  same  academic 
year  there  shall  be  held  a  general  election,  open  to  the  entire 
student  body  of  the  University,  at  which  the  remaining  six 
members  of  the  new  Board  shall  be  elected. 

(3)  At  each  election  all  voting  shall  be  by  ballot  only  and 
conducted  through  the  office  of  the  Registrar.     The  election 
period  during  which  balloting  may  take  place  shall  extend 
over  three  days  between  the  hours  of  9  A.M.  and  5  P.M.  of 
each  day.     In  the  elections  provided  for  in  Section  i  of  this 
Article,  the  candidate  receiving  the  highest  number  of  votes 
in  each  election  shall  be  considered  elected.     In  the  general 
election  provided  for  in  Section  2  of  this  Article,  the  six 
candidates  receiving  the  highest  number  of  votes  shall  be 
considered  elected. 

(4)  The  Board  shall  have  the  power  to  fill  any  vacancy 
arising  in  its  membership  between  elections. 


Appendix  383 

ARTICLE  VII 

The  officers  of  the  Board  shall  be  a  Chairman  and  a  Sec- 
retary-Treasurer, who  shall  hold  office  for  one  year.  The 
Chairman  and  Secretary-Treasurer  shall  be  elected  by  a 
majority  vote  of  the  Board  at  its  first  regular  meeting,  which 
meeting  shall  be  held  on  the  day  following  Commencement. 
The  Chairman  shall  preside  at  meetings.  In  the  event  of  his 
absence,  the  Board  may  elect  a  Chairman  pro  tern.  The 
position  of  Chairman  shall  carry  with  it  no  prerogatives  be- 
yond those  of  an  ordinary  member,  except  in  cases  where  the 
Chairman  shall  be  authorized  and  instructed  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Board. 

The  Secretary-Treasurer  shall  keep  minutes  of  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Board,  shall  have  custody  of  its  records  and 
funds  and  shall  conduct  its  correspondence. 

ARTICLE  VIII 
The  Board  of  Student  Representatives  shall  have  the  right : 

(1)  To  nominate  two  undergraduate  members  of  the  Uni- 
versity Committee  on  Athletics,  subject  to  the  approval  of 
the  President  of  the  University. 

(2)  To  confer  with  any  officer,  or  representatives  of  any 
recognized  body  of  officers,  of  the  University,  on  matters  of 
peculiar  interest  and  concern  to  the  student  body;  and  it 
shall  furthermore  be  the  right  of  the  Board  to  receive  early 
notice  regarding  contemplated  legislation  primarily  affecting 
the  extracurricular  activities  of  the  student  body. 

(3)  To  refer  to  the  President  of  the  University  for  consid- 
eration matters  of  peculiar  interest  and  concern  to  the  stu- 
dents. 

ARTICLE  IX 

The  Board  shall  have  authority,  and  it  shall  be  its  duty 
to  take  into  consideration,  on  its  own  motion,  or  upon  charges 


384          The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

preferred,  the  conduct  of  any  student  or  body  of  students 
which  may  seem  detrimental  to  the  interest  or  the  good 
name  of  the  University;  and  having  conducted  an  investiga- 
tion, shall  itself  take,  or,  where  necessary,  recommend  to  the 
appropriate  authorities,  such  action  as  it  deems  just  and 
reasonable,  to  the  end  that  such  detrimental  conduct  shall 
be  properly  reprehended  and  any  repetition  of  it  prevented. 

ARTICLE  X 

Subject  to  the  reserved  power  of  the  University  authorities, 
this  Board  shall  exercise  control  over  all  inter-class  affairs 
and  intramural  sports. 

The  Board  shall  take  charge  of  all  class  and  general  elec- 
tions, and  shall  have  the  power  to  appoint  the  tjmes  for 
holding  class  elections  and  all  inter-class  contests. 

ARTICLE  XI 

Any  petition  submitted  through  the  Board  shall  receive 
official  acknowledgment  and  shall  be  acted  upon  by  the 
appropriate  authorities  as  soon  as  may  be  practicable. 

ARTICLE  XII 

A  report  of  the  Board  shall  be  submitted  annually  to  the 
President  of  the  University  on  or  before  June  3oth. 

ARTICLE  XIII 

This  Constitution  may  be  amended,  upon  written  notice 
of  not  less  than  five  days  to  all  members  of  this  Board,  by 
vote  of  seven  members  of  the  Board,  such  amendment, 
before  becoming  effective,  to  be  ratified  by  the  student 
body  and  the  University  Committee  on  Student  Organi- 
zations. 


Appendix  385 

APPENDIX  No.  IV1 

"It  will  be  evident  to  one  who  examines  with  care  the 
status  of  the  American  college  professor  that  the  low  scale 
of  salaries  which  obtain  in  most  institutions  is  due  in  no 
small  measure  to  the  multiplication  of  weak  and  unnecessary 
colleges.  No  two  causes  have  had  a  larger  share  in  bring- 
ing down  the  financial  reward  of  the  teacher  and  of  taking 
away  from  the  dignity  of  his  position  than  the  tendency  to 
multiply  the  number  of  colleges  with  little  regard  to  standards 
and  the  tendency  to  expand  the  curriculum  over  an  enor- 
mous variety  of  subjects  without  regard  to  thoroughness. 
A  college  of  ten  professors  who  are  strong  teachers,  com- 
manding fair  compensation,  and  teaching  only  such  sub- 
jects as  they  can  teach  thoroughly,  is  a  far  better  center  of 
intellectual  life  than  a  college  which  seeks  with  the  same  in- 
come to  double  the  number  of  professors  and  to  expand  the 
curriculum  to  include  in  a  superficial  way  the  whole  field 
of  human  knowledge.  It  is  a  true  college  that  chooses  to 
add  to  its  curriculum  only  so  fast  as  it  can  provide  fair  sal- 
aries for  the  work  already  in  hand.  It  is  clear  from  the 
statistics  of  institutions  given  in  this  Bulletin  that  the  low 
grade  of  college  salaries  in  a  certain  group  of  American 
institutions  is  due  to  the  attempt  to  maintain  a  university 
with  an  income  which  is  adequate  only  to  the  maintenance 
of  a  good  college.  The  scholarly  atmosphere  maintained 
at  some  institutions,  whose  smaller  income  has  placed  them 
in  the  second  group  of  institutions  for  which  statistics  are 
presented,  is  fairly  well  connected  with  the  relatively  high 
salaries  they  pay  to  professors. 

"The  payment  of  a  fair  salary  to  the  teacher  is  also 
directly  connected  with  the  output  of  scholarly  work  and  the 
advance  of  research  among  college  and  university  teachers. 
1  Page  199. 


386  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

A  large  proportion  of  the  teachers  in  American  universities 
are  engaged  in  turning  the  grindstone  of  some  outside  em- 
ployment with  one  hand  whilst  they  carry  on  the  work  of  the 
teacher  with  the  other.  Owing  to  the  rise  in  the  cost  of 
living  the  proportion  of  teachers  who  seek  to  increase  their 
incomes  in  this  way  is  very  large.  The  method  of  organiza- 
tion of  the  American  university  also  throws  a  large  amount 
of  executive  [administrative]  work  upon  members  of  the 
faculty.  For  this  extra  compensation  is  sometimes  paid. 
Both  processes  cut  down  the  opportunity  for  scholarly  study 
and  take  away  from  the  dignity,  simplicity  and  high-mind- 
edness  of  the  teacher's  calling." 

"Colleges  are  beginning  to  discuss  with  seriousness  the 
need  of  strong  teachers  as  distinguished  from  the  need  for 
material  equipment.  This  fact  itself  is  a  hopeful  indication 
of  educational  progress.  A  movement  is  on  foot  among  all 
of  the  better  institutions  to  make  the  salary  of  the  teacher 
approximate  what  might  be  called  the  line  of  comfort."  2 

"The  most  important  thing  in  regard  to  the  income  of. 
college  teachers,  in  relation  to  the  cost  of  living  in  the  com- 
munity in  which  the  college  is  situated,  is  whether  the  salary 
paid  by  the  college  is  above  or  below  the  indispensable  line 
of  comfort.  In  every  community  there  is  a  certain  sum 
which  represents  what  a  man  with  a  family  needs  to  pay 
his  landlord,  his  butcher,  his  grocer  and  his  tailor.  This 
sum  must  be  fixed  having  in  mind  the  quarter  of  the  town  in 
which  the  college  professor  should  live,  how  his  table  should 
be  provided,  and  what  his  wife  and  children  should  wear. 
These  requirements  need  not  be  luxuriously  provided  for, 
but  they  should  be  provided  for  as  a  well-educated  and 
refined  man  needs  they  should  be.  If  the  institution  in 
which  he  teaches  pays  the  professor  a  few  hundred  dollars 

1  Carnegie  Foundation  Bulletin,  No.  Two,  p.  vii. 

2  1 bid. ,  p.  viii. 


Appendix  387 

above  this  minimum  line  of  comfort,  he  is  free  from  worry, 
his  family  life  is  cheerful,  he  can  give  the  best  that  is  in  him 
to  his  institution  and  its  students.  An  income  only  a  few 
hundred  dollars  below  this  level  puts  the  professor  in  a 
situation  involving  worry  and  anxiety.  Heretofore  little 
has  been  done  to  fix  salaries  in  respect  to  any  fair  or  even 
possible  line  of  comfort.  And  it  has  therefore  happened 
that  at  the  same  time  when  small  economies  in  salaries  have 
lowered  an  entire  faculty  into  discontent  and  inefficiency,  an 
amount  sufficient  to  raise  the  teaching  body  into  an  atmos- 
phere of  content  and  cheerful  work  has  been  spent  in  facing 
the  campus  buildings  with  marble,  and  in  giving  to  the  ath- 
letic field  the  appearance  of  a  Roman  amphitheater."  * 

"The  question  of  the  method  of  the  appointment  of  men 
to  places  requiring  a  high  degree  of  skill  and  a  wide  range 
of  culture  is  difficult  and  no  method  has  probably  been 
devised  which  insures  that  the  right  man  may  always  be 
chosen.  The  objection  to  the  choosing  of  professors  by  a 
president,  even  assuming  a  consultation  with  his  immediate 
advisers,  is  open,  among  other  objections,  to  the  very  serious 
one  that  the  choice  is  usually  narrowed  to  a  limited  number 
of  persons  when  there  might  be  men  excellently  qualified 
whose  names  are  never  mentioned.  In  obtaining  men  for 
high  technical  places  under  the  Federal  Government  through 
the  Civil  Service,  chiefs  of  divisions  are  often  surprised  at  the 
discovery  of  men  who  had  been  hitherto  entirely  unknown  out- 
side of  their  own  regions,  but  of  a  very  high  order  of  ability. 

"The  effort  made  to  overcome  this  difficulty  which  has 
been  adopted  in  the  choosing  of  professors  in  the  Italian 
universities  and  which  has  shown  excellent  results  is  the 
following. 

"When  a  vacancy  occurs  in  a  professorship  in  an  Italian 
university,  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  advertises  the 
1  Carnegie  Foundation  Bulletin  No.  Two,  p.  36. 


388  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

vacancy  in  the  journal  of  the  department  and  bulletins  an- 
nouncing the  existence  of  the  vacancy  are  posted  in  uni- 
versities or  in  other  places  likely  to  attract  the  notice  of 
possible  candidates.  Any  person  may  apply  for  the  position. 
His  application  must  be  accompanied  by  certain  biograph- 
ical information,  together  with  a  complete  statement  of  his 
record  as  a  teacher  and  of  his  scientific  or  literary  activities. 
His  publications  must  accompany  the  application.  All  ap- 
plications must  be  made  within  a  certain  date. 

"In  order  to  decide  between  the  applicants  a  jury  is  se- 
lected, the  faculty  of  each  university  in  the  country  being 
invited  to  vote  for  members  of  the  jury,  these  being  neces- 
sarily professors  of  the  same  subjects  or  of  a  kindred  sub- 
ject to  that  in  which  the  vacancy  occurs.  Each  faculty  votes 
for  five  jurors.  The  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  chooses 
five  names  from  amongst  ten  having  the  highest  votes. 
The  applications  of  the  candidates  are  then  turned  over  to 
this  jury.  They  report  to  the  Minister  three  names  in  the 
order  of  merit  and  the  appointment  is  offered  to  the  first; 
if  he  refuses,  to  the  second;  and  if  he  refuses,  to  the  third. 

"It  should  be  mentioned  that  in  exceptional  cases  the 
faculty  of  the  institution  in  which  the  vacancy  occurs  may 
request  the  filling  of  the  vacancy  by  a  direct  call  to  another 
professor  of  the  same  subject  in  another  university. 

"  In  sharp  contrast  to  this  method  of  choice  there  has  been 
developed  in  nearly  all  American  institutions  a  system  of  in- 
breeding under  which  young  graduates  are  appointed  as- 
sistants, and  then  advanced  to  instructorships,  and  later  are 
promoted  to  the  faculty."  ' 

1  Carnegie  Foundation  Bulletin  No.  Two,  p.  56. 


Appendix  389 

APPENDIX  No.  V1 

Much  space  is  devoted  by  the  Carnegie  Foundation  to 
the  dissimilarity  of  remuneration  among  the  instructors. 

"Columbia  University  and  Harvard  University  have  al- 
most the  same  number  of  persons  in  their  teaching  forces, 
559  and  573  respectively,  and  about  an  equal  proportion  of 
each  force  are  professors.  The  average  salaries  at  Harvard 
for  the  full  professors  and  for  the  assistant  professors  are 
higher  than  are  the  average  salaries  at  Columbia  for  the 
full  professors  and  for  the  adjunct  professors;  yet  the  total 
annual  amount  expended  by  Columbia  in  salaries  to  the  in- 
structing staff  is  $300,000  larger  than  is  the  similar  expendi- 
ture by  Harvard  University.  After  making  allowance  for 
the  salary  budget  appropriated  by  Radcliffe  College  (Bar- 
nard College  being  included  in  the  figures  for  Columbia 
University)  this  excess  of  the  Columbia  budget  is  equal  to  the 
total  annual  income  received  by  an  institution  of  the  size  of 
Dartmouth  College.  At  least  half  of  this  difference  between 
the  salary  expenditures  at  Columbia  and  at  Harvard  is  due 
to  the  difference  in  the  salaries  paid  in  the  teaching  grades 
below  faculty  rank.  The  average  instructor  at  Harvard  re- 
ceives $753  a  year  less  than  the  average  instructor  at  Co- 
lumbia, and  in  the  grade  of  assistant  the  difference  between 
the  two  college  departments  is  about  $150.  There  is  also 
a  considerable  difference  between  the  average  salary  of  the 
junior  officer  at  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of 
Columbia,  and  the  similar  average  for  the  Medical  School  of 
Harvard.  These  amounts  of  $750  and  $150  do  not  seem 
much  in  themselves,  but  when  they  are  multiplied  by  the 
large  number  of  teachers  who  in  a  great  university  such  as 
Harvard  hold  the  titles  of  instructor  and  assistant,  the  re- 
sult is  a  saving  of  about  $130,000  a  year,  enough  to  pay  all 
'Page  293. 


390  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

the  salaries  of  all  the  professors  and  of  all  the  other  teachers 
at  either  Brown  University,  or  at  Wellesley  or  at  Vassar." 

As  to  varying  instructional  demands  upon  the  teaching 
force  of  different  institutions,  the  Bulletin  says  (p.  49) : 

"This  variation  amongst  institutions  is  a  very  important 
fact.  Why  should  one  institution  of  those  given  in  Table 
II  need  three  times  as  many  teachers  per  hundred  students 
as  another  institution,  or  inversely,  how  can  one  of  them  get 
along  with  a  third  as  large  a  staff  per  hundred  students  as 
another  has?  Should  one  college  provide  five  times  as 
many  (or  as  few)  teachers  to  a  hundred  students  as  another? 
This  great  variability  may  mean  (i)  great  differences  in  the 
educational  problems  met  by  different  institutions,  all  doing 
their  work  with  the  same  adequacy,  or  it  may  mean  (2)  that 
the  resources  of  some  are  inadequate,  or  it  may  mean  (3) 
that  the  resources  of  some  are  not  perfectly  employed,  or 
it  may  mean  a  combination  of  two  or  three  of  these  con- 
ditions. A  painstaking  investigation  of  the  exact  condition 
of  the  staff,  students,  and  curriculum  in  each  institution  is 
evidently  very  much  needed." 

Again  the  Bulletin  says  (p.  62): 

"The  amount  of  teaching  which  institutions  of  different 
grades  calling  themselves  colleges  or  universities  exact  of  a 
professor,  an  assistant  professor  or  an  instructor,  varies  so 
greatly  with  the  standards  of  the  institution  and  the  status 
of  education  in  its  region  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  any 
complete  statement  concerning  it  without  a  full  list  of  the 
professors  of  each  institution,  the  number  of  recitation  peri- 
ods and  the  amount  of  laboratory  work  assigned  to  them. 
In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  full  professor  in  the 
stronger  universities  is  called  upon  to  give  from  six  to  twelve 
hours  a  week  of  lectures  or  recitations,  counting  two  hours 
of  laboratory  or  seminar  exercises  as  equivalent  to  one  hour 
of  lecture  or  recitation.  In  the  better  smaller  universities 


Appendix  391 

and  colleges  from  twelve  to  fifteen  hours  a  week  of  lectures 
and  recitations  are  counted  as  the  ordinary  work  of  a  pro- 
fessor. In  a  number  of  institutions  as  many  as  twenty-five 
hours  a  week  of  recitations  and  lectures  are  demanded. 
Such  excessive  demands  upon  the  professor  are  invariably 
associated  with  low  standards,  the  effort  for  numbers  and  the 
widespread  attempt  in  American  colleges  to  give  instruction 
in  every  conceivable  study.  The  number  of  teaching  hours 
a  week  imposed  upon  the  teacher  and  the  amount  of  admin- 
istrative detail  added  to  them  are  directly  related  not  only 
to  the  question  of  good  teaching  but  also  to  the  possibilities 
of  the  teacher  for  study,  for  growth  and  for  scholarly  pro- 
ductiveness. The  present  bulletin  was  compiled  from  data 
dealing  with  the  financial  status  of  the  teacher  in  the  higher 
institutions.  A  statement  concerning  matters  relating  to  the 
scholarly  status  of  the  professor  will  be  prepared  later." 

At  another  point  the  Bulletin  says  (p.  51): 

"Nor  will  anyone  informed  concerning  higher  education 
deny  that  the  teaching  resources  of  some  institutions  are 
inadequate.  The  significance  of  our  data  lies  in  the  fact 
that  unless  there  is  some  waste  in  some  institutions,  there 
is  an  enormous  inadequacy  in  others.  After  making  every 
allowance  for  differences  in  the  proportion  of  part-time  pro- 
fessors and  assistants,  for  differences  in  the  character  of  the 
work,  and  the  like,  it  seems  strange  that  we  should  find  among 
institutions  doing  work  of  approximately  equal  difficulty,  some 
with  a  provision  of  over  twice  as  many  teachers  as  others. 

"This  fact  is,  perhaps,  the  most  important  one  that  ap- 
pears in  comparing  institutions  for  higher  education.  It 
leads  at  once  to  this  question,  '  Given  a  college  of  liberal  arts 
and  sciences,  or  a  medical  school,  or  a  law  school  of  a  certain 
size,  what  is  the  number  of  teachers  that  the  administrative 
authority  has  a  right  to  demand  of  the  financial  authorities 
for  the  proper  conduct  of  the  work/  and  to  the  further  ques- 


39 2  The  Reorganization  of  Our  Colleges 

tion,  '  Given  a  certain  sum  for  salaries  for  such  a  college  or 
school  of  a  certain  size,  how  much  must  be  sacrificed  in  the 
quality  of  the  teachers  in  order  to  get  enough  teachers?' 

"If  the  country  as  a  whole  could  afford  a  teacher  for 
every  three  university  students,  it  might  be  wise  economy; 
but  if  the  country  as  a  whole  can  afford  only  one  for 
eleven,  it  may  be  a  waste  for  one  institution  to  have  many 
more  than  its  share.  There  is  presumably  an  optimum 
proportion  of  instructors  to  students,  movement  toward 
which  brings  increasing  educational  returns  for  each  teacher 
added,  and  movement  beyond  which  brings  diminishing 
returns. 

"Some  university  teachers  will  deny  this  doctrine  of  di- 
minishing returns,  and  very  many  of  them  will  deny  that 
any  institution  in  this  country  has  passed  beyond  this  opti- 
mum proportion.  The  matter  needs  investigation,  but  the 
experience  of  elementary  and  secondary  education  and  the 
general  facts  of  human  nature  support  the  belief  that,  after 
the  groups  in  which  students  are  divided  for  instruction 
reach  a  certain  minimum,  further  division  produces  very 
little  educational  gain.  Indeed,  there  is  some  support  for 
the  belief  that  a  class  of  fifteen  students  in  the  majority  of 
undergraduate  or  professional  subjects  is  absolutely  better 
than  a  class  smaller  in  number  and  that  a  seminar  or  pro- 
seminar  or  other  specialized  course  is  more  efficient  with 
eight  students  than  with  less.  In  any  event  it  is  as  much  the 
duty  of  the  educational  administration  to  use  funds  econom- 
ically as  it  is  the  duty  of  society  to  provide  more  money  for 
higher  education.  With  all  due  regard  to  the  necessity  of 
presenting  a  wide  range  of  subjects  for  study  and  of  giving 
students  close  personal  attention,  it  seems  proper  that  an 
increase  of  the  staff  of  a  university  beyond  twelve  men  for  a 
hundred  students,  or  of  the  staff  of  a  college  beyond  nine 
men  for  a  hundred  students,  should  be  regarded  not,  as  it 


Appendix  393 

now  is,  as  an  unmixed  good,  but  as  a  step  that  may  demand 
justification  as  truly  as  would  an  equal  decrease. 

"The  second  question  suggested  by  the  great  variation 
in  the  number  of  students  per  instructor  was,  '  Given  a  cer- 
tain sum  for  salaries  for  a  university  or  college  of  a  given  size, 
how  much  must  be  sacrificed  in  the  quality  of  the  teachers 
in  order  to  have  enough  teachers?'  As  a  concrete  sample 
of  this  problem  let  us  suppose  an  undergraduate  college  like 
that  for  men  at  Princeton,  or  for  women  at  Mt.  Holyoke,  to 
have  enrolled  200  freshmen,  160  sophomores,  150  juniors, 
and  140  seniors,  a  total  of  650,  and  to  have  an  allowance  for 
salaries  of  $70,000.  Shall  it  employ  80  teachers  at  an  aver- 
age salary  of  less  than  $900,  or  60  teachers  at  an  average 
salary  of  nearly  $1,200,  or  40  teachers  at  an  average  salary 
of  nearly  $1,800?  In  the  first  case  it  can  provide  twice  as 
many  courses  or  give  each  member  of  the  staff  only  half  as 
many  hours  of  teaching  as  in  the  last  case.  Keeping  the 
latter  alike  in  both  cases  it  could  offer  say  300  courses  in  the 
first  case,  and  only  1 50  in  the  second. 

"Suppose  the  allowance  for  salaries  to  be  the  relatively 
high  one  of  $140,000.  Shall  the  institution  have  a  staff  of 
80  at  an  average  salary  of  $1,800  or  a  staff  of  60  at  an  aver- 
age salary  of  $2,400,  or  a  staff  of  40  at  an  average  salary  of 
$3,600,  with  consequences  as  before  to  the  amount  of  teach- 
ing of  each  member  of  the  staff,  or  to  the  variety  of  the 
courses  offered  to  the  students? 

"The  figures  concerning  the  number  of  students  per  in- 
structor strongly  support  the  criticism  that  the  American 
colleges  and  universities  are  offering  too  many  courses. 
One  three-thousand-dollar  man  teaching  a  class  of  thirty- 
six  students  probably  means  better  progress  in  education 
than  two  fifteen-hundred-dollar  men  each  teaching  eighteen 
of  the  thirty-six.  With  a  given  sum  to  spend  and  a  given 
number  of  students,  salaries  can  be  increased  only  by  di- 


394          The  Reorganization  0}  Our  Colleges 

minishing  the  number  of  courses  taught  by  an  individual. 
Either  of  these  alternatives  seems  preferable  to  leaving  sal- 
aries at  their  present  low  level,  and  the  former  seems  feasible 
without  any  alarming  loss  in  the  adequacy  of  college  curric- 
ula to  the  need  of  college  students. 

1  'One  may  well  hesitate  to  oppose  any  widening  of  the 
scope  of  an  institution's  offering  in  science  and  letters.  But 
the  educational  welfare  of  the  students  is  in  the  long  run 
more  dependent  on  the  quality  of  the  teaching  profession 
than  on  all  other  causes.  And  the  increase  of  courses  is  not 
mainly  due  to  greater  needs  of  the  student  body.  On  the 
contrary,  it  may  be  irrational. 

"The  professor  at  the  head  of  a  department  is  usually 
a  specialist,  zealous  for  the  subject  he  loves,  not  interested 
in  and  unacquainted  with  the  facts  of  university  economy. 
He  is  eager  to  see  his  department  flourish  and  to  that  end 
adds  courses.  He  dislikes  to  have  a  student  wish  for  a  cer- 
tain course  in  his  junior  year  because  it  is  for  economy 
given  only  biennially.  Often  he  fails  to  appreciate  that 
biennial  courses  may  mean  a  doubled  salary  allowance  per 
man.  He  does  not  feel  quite  justified  in  demanding  a 
greater  salary  for  himself,  even  though  he  is  wasting  the  uni- 
versity's energy  in  copying  quotations,  building  fires  and 
hunting  about  the  town  for  a  cheap  tailor.  But  he  feels  it 
his  duty  to  beg  for  an  additional  man  in  the  department. 
He  is,  perhaps,  conscious  that  better  men,  and  hence  higher 
salaries,  must  be  the  means  of  advancing  his  or  other  de- 
partments in  the  long  run,  but  whenever  the  question  is  pro- 
visionally raised  he  tends  to  take  the  line  of  least  resistance 
and  ask  for  an  addition  which  will  not  bring  up  the  question 
of  raising  the  institution's  scale  of  salaries. 

"The  college  president,  while  more  appreciative  of  the 
general  issue,  tends  likewise  to  take  the  line  of  least  resis- 
tance. A  thousand  dollars  five  times  is  easier  to  ask  for 


Appendix  395 

than  five  thousand  dollars  once.  Ever  hoping  that  the  finan- 
cial authorities  will  follow  his  broad  recommendations  to 
raise  the  salary  schedule,  he  makes  specific  recommendations 
for  increasing  the  number  of  courses,  which  in  the  end 
make  consent  to  his  appeal  for  a  higher  schedule  impossible. 
Moreover  he,  too,  is  ambitious  for  the  growth  of  his  institu- 
tion; he  loves  to  see  it  do  every  desirable  thing  that  other 
institutions  do;  he  finds  it  easier  to  get  more  courses  than  to 
get  better  men. 

"In  some  cases  there  has  been  on  the  part  of  heads  of  de- 
partments and  heads  of  colleges  nothing  less  than  a  passion 
to  increase  the  variety  of  courses  and  the  size  of  the  staff. 
A  course  is  given  though  only  five  out  of  a  thousand  students 
take  it,  and  though  these  five  would  probably  be  as  much 
profited  by  some  other  course  already  offered.  Yet  to  give 
that  course  is  to  withhold  an  increase  of  twenty  or  twenty- 
five  per  cent  to  some  individual's  salary.  No  institution 
for  higher  education  in  this  country  should,  with  its  present 
salary  schedule,  increase  its  programme  of  studies  except 
after  most  careful  consideration. 

"There  also  has  been  an  insufficient  cooperation  between 
departments  and  between  institutions.  If  all  the  depart- 
ments of  an  institution  would  agree  to  ask  for  no  added 
appropriation  for  five  years  on  condition  that  the  salary 
schedule  be  then  raised  by  a  certain  amount,  the  president 
could  recommend  a  rise  in  quality  as  an  alternative  to  a 
rise  in  number.  In  many  things  institutions  might  profit- 
ably cooperate.  There  does  not  seem,  for  example,  any  ne- 
cessity for  two  universities  in  the  same  city  to  give  courses 
in  Syriac.  Even  where  large  universities  are  separated  by 
several  hours'  journey,  they  might  well  consider  whether 
each  of  them  should  give  courses  in  Icelandic,  in  Pali,  and 
in  Old  Portuguese.  A  division  of  labor  might  well  be  ar- 
ranged in  such  subjects. 


396  The  Reorganization  oj  Our  Colleges 

11  Indeed  this  division  of  labor  could  be  extended  with 
profit  into  wider  fields  than  a  few  recondite  courses.  If 
different  institutions  would  cooperate,  whereby  one  would 
provide  an  elaborate  programme  of  studies  for  graduate 
students  in,  say,  the  physical  sciences,  another  a  similar  spe- 
cialization in  the  mental  sciences,  and  another  similarly  for 
the  modern  languages  and  literatures,  and  so  on,  there 
might  be  a  decided  gain  for  the  welfare  of  American  edu- 
cation as  a  whole.  There  would  certainly  be  a  gain  in  the 
pecuniary  rewards  of  American  professors." 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Accountant,  should  be  in  charge  of 
finances,  22,  340,  341. 

Accounting  systems,  results  of,  227- 
234.  See  Bookkeeping. 

Activities,  student,  what  are,  64, 
65. 

Administration,  present  college  sys- 
tem imperfect,  26,  27;  and 
student  life  are  like  trained 
nurses,  30,  31;  must  be  devel- 
oped, not  carried,  35,  36;  lack 
of,  in  fraternities,  100;  would 
have  foreseen  evil  results,  136; 
needed  during  expansion  of 
colleges,  153,  154;  important 
in  college  work,  163;  its  nature 
and  growth,  165,  166;  is  an 
atmosphere  and  science,  165- 
167,  177-179;  how  it  treats 
new  problems,  166-172;  col- 
leges err  as  to,  168-173;  il- 
lustrated by  cigar  company, 
169-171;  difference  between 
pedagogy  and,  170-172;  diffi- 
culties of,  not  relatively  great 
in  colleges,  171-173;  in  other 
corporations,  172,  173;  how 
regarded  in  colleges,  173-180; 
power  of,  172,  173;  how  re- 
garded in  business,  173-175; 
should  not  be  an  adjunct  to 
pedagogy,  168,  175,  180;  ob- 
jects of,  179,  180;  none  in  ear- 
lier colleges  and  times,  181, 
182;  variable  factors  in  college 
found  in,  182;  need  of,  comes 
from  an  increase  in  numbers 
and  intricacy,  201,  202;  when 
absolutely  necessary,  202,  203; 
how  problems  of,  have  in- 
creased in  colleges,  201,  202; 


Admin  istration — Cont. 

requires  cleavage  into  de- 
partments, 202;  required  by 
changes  in  colleges,  202-204; 
is  an  added  expense  without 
direct  producing  power,  205- 
216,  352;  on  railroads  and  in 
construction  work,  206;  pre- 
ceptorial system  is,  207;  vari- 
ous kinds  of  agencies  of,  dis- 
cussed, 207-214;  departments 
of,  in  a  business,  209;  how 
it  has  grown,  210;  why  col- 
lege must  have,  210-212,  226; 
must  be  conducted  by  ex- 
perts, 211,  214;  regulates  in- 
ternal affairs,  212-214;  re- 
sults of,  at  Columbia,  213, 
214;  must  cover  diversities 
of  college  and  have  common 
data,  219-222;  how  presidents 
and  professors  should  study, 
239;  and  the  marking  system, 
245-257;  publicity  bureau, 
280-288;  character  and  course 
of  head  of,  297-306;  motto  of, 
297;  men  demanded  in,  298; 
how  to  be  applied,  299-303; 
criticisms  as  to,  299-306;  will 
insure  good  pedagogical  re- 
sults, 300;  and  prevent  jeal- 
ousy in  faculties,  300-303 ;  cost 
of,  and  how  defrayed,  303- 
306;  will  add  to  college  funds, 
305;  training  experts  in,  298, 
299 ;  relation  of,  to  student  life, 
307-312;  must  be  coordinated, 
307;  and  allow  for  differences 
in  homes  and  colleges,  308- 
312;  must  improve  college 
community  life  and  homes, 


399 


400 


Index 


Administration — Cont. 

308-312;  must  arrange  for  rec- 
reation, 309;  must  train  indi- 
viduals, 310;  must  insist  on 
gymnastics  and  physical  ex- 
aminations, 310;  must  rule  by 
college  sentiment,  312;  must 
enforce  college  motto,  329, 
330;  will  enforce  good  work  in 
all  departments,  338,  339;  sep- 
arate department  of,  352-362; 
an  expense  and  nonproducer, 
352;  must  be  adapted  to  con- 
ditions and  size  of  college,  353 ; 
is  in  experimental  stage,  353; 
bureaus  of  administrative  de- 
partment (i)  of  statistics  and 
forms,  354,  355;  (2)  of  college 
waste  heap,  355;  (3)  of  college 
activities,  356;  (4)  of  college 
homes,  356;  (5)  of  health  and 
physical  exercises,  356,  357; 
(6)  of  graduate  field,  357;  (7) 
of  college  plant,  357,  358;  (8) 
of  publicity,  358;  (9)  Mark 
Hopkins  or  personal  equation 
bureau,  358-362;  must  con- 
serve character-building  capi- 
tal and  influence  of  teachers, 
359-362;  student  must  carry 
away  impress  of  teacher,  359, 
360;  the  true  capital  of  the 
college,  360;  influence  upon 
freshmen,  361,  362;  duties  of 
head  of,  362.  See  also  Col- 
leges. 

Administrative,  definition  of,  313, 

SH. 

department.      See   Administra- 
tion. 

Advertising,  principally  through  in- 
tercollegiate athletics  and  the 
effects  thereof,  280-283.  See 
Publicity. 

Alumni,  duties  in  regard  to  frater- 
nities, 1 1 6;  power  in  under- 
graduate affairs,  123;  belief  as 
to  moral  conditions,  136,  137; 
have  worked  out  forms,  prece- 
dents and  records  in  athletics, 


Alumni — Cont. 

226,  227;  experience  with 
forms  and  blanks,  233-234; 
could  help  in  studying  college 
waste  heap,  258,  265.  See 
Fraternities. 

American  college  and  university, 
new  form  of,  367-373. 

Amherst  College,  students  in,  from 
other  states,  55,  56;  honor  sys- 
tem at,  78-80;  value  of  fra- 
ternity property  at,  100. 

Association  of  American  Univer- 
sities, report  of  committee  on 
membership,  6,  375. 

Athletics.  See  College  Community 
Life,  Intercollegiate  Athletics. 

Atmosphere,  the  university  is  an; 
administration  is  an,  165.  See 
College  Atmosphere. 

Auditing.     See  Bookkeeping. 


Banks,  New  York,  presidents  of, 
318. 

Banquets,  heavy  drinking  at,  137. 

Bentley,  R.  C.,  267. 

Blank  forms,  college  does  not  use 
intelligently,  223;  three  kinds 
of,  223-230;  as  precedents  in 
law,  insurance  policies,  etc., 
224-226;  used  in  intercollegi- 
ate athletics,  225,  226;  and 
the  results  therefrom,  226;  to 
increase  productive  effective- 
ness and  train  experts,  226, 
227;  cost  accounting  system, 
227-234;  reports  of  railroads, 
227-234;  internal  effect  there- 
of, 228,  229;  cost  accounting, 
effect  of,  229,  230;  no  checking 
off  of  departments  in  colleges, 
230;  attitude  of  business  con- 
cerns toward,  230,  231;  are 
prevalent  everywhere,  except 
in  college,  231,  232;  how  lack 
of,  weakens  college,  231,  232; 
must  not  be  made  a  fetish, 
233;  under  marking  system, 
245-257;  bureau  of,  354,  355- 


Index 


401 


Boarding  houses,  college,  97,  98, 
107-111,  350-352.  See  Col- 
lege Home. 

Boarding  schools,  atmosphere  of, 
94;  vices  in,  133,  134. 

Bookkeeping,  growth  from  single 
entry  to  double  entry,  215,  216; 
growth  from  double  entry,  215, 
216;  college  still  in  single  en- 
try stage,  216;  has  provided 
new  units  of  measurement, 
217-219;  can  cover  diversities 
in  colleges,  219;  present  col- 
lege, based  on  a  diploma,  and 
does  not  analyze  internal  con- 
ditions, 220;  crude,  in  one  uni- 
versity, 220,  221;  colleges 
should  have  the  very  best,  221, 
222 ;  nature  of,  in  colleges,  222 ; 
results  of  accounting  system, 
227-234;  in  financial  depart- 
ment, 340. 

Bowery  Mission,  138. 

Briggs  report,  197,  210,  211,  238, 
337;  is  an  inventory,  238. 

Buildings,  too  much  should  not  be 
spent  upon,  305,  306. 

Bureaus,  different  in  college.  See 
Administration. 

Busting  out,  253,  277-279. 

Canfield,  James  H.,  quotations 
from  report  of,  17-19,  186, 
266,  267. 

Capital,  and  income  of  colleges, 
190;  true,  of  the  college,  360- 
362;  how  conserved  and  used, 
360-362;  should  be  in  liquid 
form,  305,  306. 

Carnegie,  Foundation,  194,  199, 
237,  286,  292-296,  378-380, 
385-396;  library  gifts,  294- 
296. 

Changes,  in  college  conditions  and 
methods,  u,  203,  204. 

Character-building,  359-362. 

Children  of  college  graduates,  sta- 
tistics as  to,  142. 

Cigars,  combination  in  making  of, 
169,  170. 


Citizen,  relation  of,  to  the  state  or 
government,  40-43;  students 
have  same  relations  to  college, 
45,  46;  how  government  and 
internal  relations  of  colleges 
are  to  be  studied,  49 ;  most  un- 
dergraduates, minors,  47;  un- 
desirable, 7 1-73;  training  of,  in 
student  lif e,  1 1 6, 1 1 7 .  See  also 
Citizenship,  Colleges,  State. 

Citizenship,  physical  education  in 
preparing  for,  83-87;  training 
for,  1 6,  17,  372,  373;  course  in, 
364-366;  most  important  in 
college,  364;  should  study  col- 
lege conditions,  and  train  for 
efficient  citizens  and  practical 
politicians,  364,  365 ;  previous 
failure  in  regard  to,  365,  366. 
See  also  Citizen. 

Coach,  canvassing  athletic  material 
by,  24;  needs  no  examinations, 
268,  269. 

Colleges,  how  word  is  used  herein, 
9,  10,  48;  new  form  of,  367- 
373;  and  universities,  distinc- 
tion between,  6-8,  368,  369; 
change  in  nature  of,  36-50; 
wealth  and  power  of,  37;  are 
political  or  municipal  corpora- 
tions, 38,  39;  quasi  public,  like 
railroads,  38,  39;  gradual  de- 
velopment to  quasi  municipal 
corporations,  40;  relation  of 
student  citizen  to,  40-47;  how 
we  must  study  parts  of,  49; 
dissimilarity  in,  44;  objects  of, 
14-20,  153-157;  now  exer- 
cising public  functions,  and 
capstone  of  compulsory  pub- 
lic-school system,  53,  54,  331, 
332;  boarding  houses  in,  97, 
98,  107-111,  350-352;  are 
public  servants,  like  railroads, 
and  should  be  under  same 
control,  58;  if  they  go  astray, 
it  is  not  merely  a  pedagogical 
matter,  59;  close  connection 
with  state  and  its  homes,  par- 
ents, citizens,  59,  60;  what 


402 


Index 


Colleges— Cont. 

state  aid  to,  implies,  55;  duties 
toward  state,  89;  capital  and 
income  of,  100;  increase  of  stu- 
dents of,  191,  192;  overwork- 
ing teachers,  190-194;  need 
liquid  capital,  305,  306;  need 
large  income  rather  than  large 
endowments,  304-306;  aims 
and  duties  of,  must  be  denned, 
331;  need  patriotism  for  the 
state,  and  to  train  for  citizen- 
ship, 332 ,  333 ;  number  of,  205 ; 
how  methods  and  fields  of  in- 
struction of,  have  changed, 
204, 205 ;  competition  for  num- 
bers, 194;  should  have  best 
accounting  system,  221,  222. 
See  Administration,  College, 
infra,  Earlier  Colleges,  Peda- 
gogy, Reorganization. 
College,  activities,  64,  65;  bureau 
of,  356. 

administration.  See  Adminis- 
tration. 

administrative  problems  increase 
with  size,  201-214. 

admission  to,  278,  279;  waiting 
list  in,  275-279. 

atmosphere,  importance  of,  70- 
74,  86-89, 122>  effect  on  young 
men,  137;  good,  must  be  as- 
sured, 351. 

authorities,  have  not  studied  their 
own  conditions,  68,  69;  re- 
sponsible for  college  vices, 
128-131, 138-145. 

course,  objectives  of,  14-17. 

community  life,  nature  of,  46- 
49;  not  well  differentiated  in 
early  college,  61-63;  no  longer 
a  simple  matter,  63,  64;  covers 
a  distinct  life  period,  64,  65; 
and  recognized  student  activ- 
ities, 64;  is  important  part  of 
college  education,  66-74;  rep- 
resents the  soil,  66-68;  interest 
of  college  in,  direct,  68;  direct 
effect  upon  students  of,  68;  not 
understood  by  college  author- 


College—  Cont. 

ities,  68,  69;  close  acquaint- 
ances in,  69;  complete  change 
from  earlier  times,  70;  badly 
affected  by  course  of  colleges, 
70,  71;  tends  to  lower  scholar- 
ship, 71 ;  students  go  wrong  in, 
71;  place  in  training  for  citi- 
zenship, 71-73;  relation  of  ad- 
ministration to,  307-312;  vari- 
ances in,  308-312;  must  be 
kept  clean  and  inspiring,  310- 
312;  covers  picked  men,  348; 
politics  in,  348,  349;  compe- 
tition in,  350-352.  See  Stu- 
dent Life  Department. 

departments  of,  21-32. 

discipline.     See  Discipline. 

dormitories.     See  Dormitories. 

education,  how  words  are  used 
herein,  16;  formerly  a  luxury, 
51;  and  built  up  aristocracy, 
52;  final  molding  for  citizen- 
ship, 220,  221 ;  must  be  nation- 
alized, 372,  373;  how  its  ele- 
ments have  changed,  240-244; 
what  it  must  be,  332-338;  how 
we  must  individualize,  333- 
338;  soft  culture  courses,  334- 
337;  must  hold  up  high  ideals, 
336»  337J  college  must  im- 
prove itself,  337,  338.  See 
Education. 

field,  must  be  studied,  240-244; 
bureau  of,  357.  See  Field. 

finances  should  be  under  skilled 
accountants  and  reports  be 
very  full,  21-23,339-341. 

home  life,  how  governed  and  re- 
formed, 40-43,  47-50;  must 
reach  personal  habits  through, 
81,  82;  like  any  other  home, 
90,  91;  must  exist  in  college, 
90;  every  student  has  it,  90, 
91;  badly  neglected,  91,  92; 
must  be  affected  by  permanent 
human  influences,  92,  93; 
which  must  work  from  within, 
92,  93;  importance  of  restoring 
it  to  its  proper  place,  94;  value 


Index 


403 


College— Cont. 

in  eyes  of  forefathers,  94,  95. 
See  also  Fraternities.  Con- 
nection of,  with  college  vices, 
118-145.  See  College,,  Vices. 
Undue  importance  often  given 
to,  152-155;  has  been  running 
wild,  155,  156;  in  connection 
with  college  temptations,  160, 
161 ;  forces  of,  overstimulated, 
152-154;  how  effected  by  ad- 
ministration, 307-312;  must 
allow  for  variance  in,  307-310; 
good  times  in,  309;  must  be 
kept  clean,  311,  312;  rights 
and  duties  of  college  in,  311; 
how  misunderstood,  328;  cov- 
ers picked  young  men,  348;  its 
social  problems,  349;  compe- 
tition between,  350;  requisites 
of>  35 !»  352;  the  ideal  college 
home,  352;  parents  and  others 
should  study,  352;  bureau  of 
college  homes,  356.  See  Col- 
lege Community  Life,  Student 
Life  Department. 

inventory,  235-239. 

life,  how  words  are  used  herein, 
9, 48;  no  longer  a  simple  affair, 
63,  64;  covers  a  recognized  life 
period,  64. 

marking  system.  See  Marking 
System. 

methods,  very  crass,  258,  259. 

motto.     See  Motto. 

pedagogy.    See  Pedagogy. 

plant,  study  of,  235-239;  inven- 
tory of,  235-239;  how  trusts 
take  inventories,  235,  236;  bu- 
reau of,  357,  358. 

president.     See  President. 

reorganization.  See  Reorgan- 
ization. 

temptations,  importance  of,  160, 
161. 

training,  how  words  are  used 
herein,  16.  See  Citizenship, 
College  Education. 

vices,  reasons  for  discussion  of, 
118,  119;  are  moral,  not  legal 


College— Cont. 

misdemeanors,  118,  119;  how 
they  should  be  studied,  119- 
125;  differ  in  different  institu- 
tions at  different  times,  1 20, 1 2 1 ; 
affected  by  college  atmosphere, 
121-124;  what  they  compre- 
hend, 124,  125;  attitude  of  stu- 
dents toward,  125;  caused  by 
local  and  other  conditions, 
126-128;  where  most  preva- 
lent, 126-128;  make  student 
life  most  important  depart- 
ment, 127;  danger  of  disease, 
127,  128;  counteracting,  128; 
made  worse  by  authorities  and 
alumni,  128-131 ;  have  not  been 
properly  studied,  129,  145;  im- 
proper lectures,  129;  growth 
because  of  lack  of  adminis- 
trative department,  130,  131; 
is  there  proof  as  to,  131-139; 
statement  of  medical  depart- 
ments, 131,  132;  affect  the 
commonwealth,  132;  instances 
of,  132-137;  brought  from 
preparatory  schools,  133,  134; 
growth  of  drinking  habit, 
134-139;  even  in  denomina- 
tional colleges,  135;  drinking 
clubs,  135,  136;  drinking  at 
commencement  and  alumni 
and  fraternity  banquets,  136- 
138;  how  these  vices  are  re- 
garded by  railroads  and  other 
corporations,  134,  138;  effect 
on  young  boys,  137;  and  on 
college  graduates,  138;  posi- 
tion of  authorities  as  to,  139; 
discussion  from  point  of  reor- 
ganizer,  139,  140,  144;  and  of 
duty  to  state,  140-145;  as  af- 
fecting future  of  graduates, 
142;  touch  every  home  in  state, 
142,  143;  colleges  should  pre- 
vent, 143,  144- 

waste  heap,  and  college  vices, 
121,  138;  size  of,  184;  how  to 
be  studied,  258-265;  how  man- 
ufacturers study  their  waste 


404 


Index 


College— Cont. 

products,  258,  259;  what  com- 
posed of,  259-261;  waste  of 
costly  products  stopped  in  fac- 
tories, but  not  in  colleges,  260, 
261 ;  purposes  of  study  of,  261, 
262;  how  conditions  will  be 
analyzed,  260-262;  we  should 
rate  institutions  according  to 
size  of,  263;  governmental  bu- 
reau to  help  study,  263,  264; 
and  demand  annual  account- 
ing, 264,  265;  bureau  of,  355. 
See  also  Colleges. 

Columbia,  size  in  1850,  30;  student 
government  at,  77,  380;  value 
of  fraternity  property  at,  100; 
pay  of  teachers  at,  197;  results 
of  business  methods  in,  2 1 3, 2 1 4. 

Commencement,  drinking  at,  136, 
137;  enthusiasm  at,  152. 

Commonwealth.     See  State. 

Community  life,  how  governed  and 
reformed,  40-42;  importance 
of,  373.  See  also  College 
Community  Life. 

Cost  of  administrative  department, 
303-306. 

Cost  accountant,  212,  340. 

Cost  accounting,  how  it  has  grown, 
216-222;  absolutely  necessary 
in  colleges,  216-222;  results  of, 
227-234. 

Credit  man,  212. 

Culture  courses,  growth  of,  in  state 
universities,  8,  9.  See  Soft 
Culture  Courses. 

Dartmouth,  under  first  president, 

182,  183. 

Debts  of  cities  and  states,  37. 
Definition  of  college  and  university, 

6,368,369,377-. 

Denominational  institutions,  col- 
lege vices  in,  123,  124,  135; 
lack  of  uniformity  in,  292. 

Differentiation,  of  administrative 
departments,  202;  in  college 
departments,  211,  212,  338, 
339,  363- 


Diploma,  universal  value  of  col- 
lege, 56;  on  the  marking-sys- 
tem basis,  251;  meaning  and 
value  of  present,  310,  328,  332, 
365;  studying  for,  334-338- 
See  Marking  System. 

Discipline,  in  earlier  colleges,  181- 
184;  in  the  reorganized  college, 
270-274;  will  follow  planes  of 
college  life,  270,  271;  story  of 
mouse,  270,  271;  not  under- 
stood, arbitrary  and  autocrat- 
ic, 271-274;  story  of  student 
flunked  in  gymnastics,  272; 
bad  results  of  present  system, 
274. 

Dormitories,  not  being  built  by 
state  universities,  97;  many 
colleges  have  none,  97-99;  cost 
of,  98-100;  ideal  size  of,  106, 
107,  115;  in  coeducational 
college,  no.  See  also  College 
Home  Life,  Fraternities. 

Double-entry  bookkeeping,  215- 
222. 

Drunkenness.    See  College  Vices. 

Earlier  colleges,  tutors'  connection 
with  home  life  of,  31;  charac- 
teristics of,  36,  45;  trained 
scriptural  contra versialists,  5  r ; 
right  to  education  determined 
by  parents  or  church,  54;  com- 
munity and  home  life  in,  61- 
63,  69,  70;  care  of  personal 
habits  in,  61-63;  founded  on 
private  schools,  195,  196; 
marking  system  in,  245,  246, 
256,  257;  presidents  of,  314. 

Education,  now  scientific  and  spe- 
cialized, 52;  universal  and 
compulsory,  54;  enormous  ex- 
penditures for,  55-59;  much 
now  falsely  so  called,  183,  184; 
often,  does  not  look  for  facts, 
217.  See  College  Education. 
United  States  Department  of, 
263-265. 

Elective  system,  171. 

Eliot,  President,  122,  203-205,  217. 


Index 


405 


English  grammar  schools,  report 
upon,  17-19. 

Evidence,  as  to  college  vices,  118- 
120,  131-139. 

Examinations,  in  reorganized  col- 
lege, 266-269. 

Executive,  how  it  was  evolved,  313; 

definition  of,  313,  314. 
department,  27.     See  President. 

Factory,  accountant  in  financial  de- 
partment, 340;  practice,  188- 
198. 

Field,  of  the  reorganized  college; 
how  business  men  study  their 
field,  240;  change  in  college 
field,  240,  241;  necessitates 
administrative  improvements, 
241-243;  how  one  factory  stud- 
ied its  field,  241-243;  students 
handicapped  because  college 
has  not  studied  its  field,  243, 
244. 

Financial  department  of  college, 
21-23,  2I7»  220»  22I5  h°w 
accounts  in,  are  to  be  kept,  339 ; 
should  have  expert  factory  ac- 
countant, 340;  cost  system  in, 
340,  341- 

Flexner,  Abraham,  "The  American 
College,"  25,  198. 

Flogging,  at  Harvard,  63. 

Forms.     See  Blank  Forms. 

Football,  its  prominence  and  mot- 
to, 326-330;  growth  not  acci- 
dental, 327;  what  its  motto 
means,  329.  See  Intercollegi- 
ate Athletics. 

Fraternities,  canvassing  freshmen, 
24;  and  the  college  home, 
96-145;  houses  of,  came 
when  college  neglected  college 
homes,  96,  97;  distinction  be- 
tween their  houses  and  college 
boarding  houses,  96-98;  cost 
of  houses  of,  98;  have  changed 
center  of  gravity  of  student 
body,  99;  own  typical  homes 
of  ordinary  college,  99;  value 
of  their  properties,  99,  100; 


Fraternities— Cont. 

will  soon  enter  home-making 
stage,  99,  100;  field  secretary 
of,  and  results  of  his  work,  101, 
102;  what  this  experiment  has 
proved,  102,  103;  best  point 
from  which  to  study  student 
conditions,  102,  105;  all  fra- 
ternities can  do  good  like 
work,  103,  104;  panhellenism, 
power  of  alumni  in  homes,  104, 
105;  alumni  in  nonfraternity 
colleges,  105,  1 06;  importance 
of,  106-108;  colleges  should 
provide  for  nonfraternity  men, 
107-114;  provide  homes,  not 
barracks,  107-109;  have  done 
something,  colleges  nothing, 
109-112;  have  made  some  rec- 
ords, in,  112;  give  social 
training,  112,  113;  growth  of, 
not  accidental,  113,  114,  326, 
327;  life  in,  concealed,  114, 
115;  moral  tendencies  some- 
times bad,  115-117;  training 
for  citizenship,  116,  152;  re- 
lation to  high-school  fraterni- 
ties, 117.  See  also  College 
Vices.  Drinking  at  banquets 
of,  137;  unregulated,  153,  154; 
hence  have  disturbed  colleges, 
171;  marking  system  for  those 
endeavoring  to  learn  standing 
of  undergraduates,  246-250; 
duties  of,  311-312;  competi- 
tion between,  350-352.  See 
College  Home  Life. 

French  Lyce"es,  17-19. 

Freshmen,  how  cared  for,  24,  25-, 
361,  362. 

Garfield,  President,  ideal  of  a  uni- 
versity, 341. 

Germanization,  of  colleges,  171. 

Germany,  gymnasium  and  univer- 
sity in,  194,  195;  length  of 
her  educational  courses,  244; 
teacher  in  university  of,  power 

of,  333- 
Gymnastics,  compulsory,  310. 


406 


Index 


Hadley,  James,  245. 

Harper,  William  R.,  8. 

Harvard,  size  of  early  classes,  30; 
why  founded,  45;  flogging  at, 
63;  pay  of  teachers  at,  197; 
changes  of  methods  and  fields 
of  instruction  at,  204,  205; 
lack  of  intelligible  marks  in, 
246;  earlier  presidents  of,  314; 
use  of  Latin  at,  336;  financial 
system  in,  340. 

Health  and  physical  exercises,  bu- 
reau of,  356,  357. 

High  schools,  growth  and  improve- 
ment of,  9;  influence  of  student 
life  department  upon,  161, 
162;  fraternities  at,  117. 

Home,  importance  of,  373;  college, 
see  College  Home  Life. 

Honor  system,  at  Amherst,  78-80. 

Hopkins,  Mark,  341;  bureau,  358- 
362. 

Human  agents,  affecting  college 
home,  92. 

Ideal,  of  reorganized  college,  325- 
330.  See  Motto. 

Insurance,  use  of  forms  and  prece- 
dents in,  224,  225;  regulation 
of,  212;  companies  in  New 
York,  presidents  of,  317,  318. 

Intercollegiate  athletics,  part  of 
college  community  life,  75, 82- 
89;  used  largely  for  advertis- 
ing, 83;  should  be  for  develop- 
ment, 83,  84;  maintenance  of 
health,  85;  preparation  for  life, 
85;  and  recreation,  86,  87; 
should  not  interfere  with  other 
duties,  87;  should  be  largely 
governed  by  human  agent,  88, 
89;  results  of  not  regulating, 
171;  dominance  of,  151,  152, 
155-162;  use  of  forms,  prece- 
dents and  records  in,  224,  225; 
possible  only  because  rules 
and  records  are  standardized, 
255;  coach  needs  no  examina- 
tions, 268,  269;  have  been 
chief  method  of  advertising, 


Intercollegiate  athletics— Cant. 

280,  281;  results  thereof,  281, 
282.  See  also  College  Com- 
munity Life. 

Inventory  of  the  college,  235-239. 

Jackson,  Helen  Hunt,  35. 
Jesse,  President,  87,  88. 
Judson,  Harry  Pratt,  106. 

Law,  use  of  forms  and  precedents 

in,  224,  225. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  297,  365. 
Looking  backward,  35. 

Manufacturer,  how  he  studies  his 
plant,  188-194;  his  field,  240- 
244;  and  waste  products,  258- 
265. 

Marking  system,  diploma,  150, 158, 
159;  units  under,  218;  use  of, 
in  earlier  times,  245,  246;  story 
of  Professor  Hadley,  245,  246; 
present  system  valueless,  246; 
proposed  new  form  of,  246- 
250;  must  be  fitted  into  com- 
plete system,  250,  251;  how  it 
should  be  used,  251-257;  plan 
of,  in  a  Western  university, 
251,  252;  must  be  backed  by 
administration,  251,  253;  driv- 
ing sheep  to  Omaha,  253; 
results  of  proper  system,  254- 
257;  should  be  standardized, 
like  athletics,  255-257;  and 
made  clear  to  students,  256; 
attitude  of  faculty  toward,  256, 
257.  See  Diploma. 

Marks,  meaning  of,  in  college,  328, 

332- 
McClure's  Magazine,  extract  from, 

McKinley,  President,  365. 
Medical  courses,  changes  in,  243, 

244. 
Medical  schools  and  lectures,  129, 

I31.  *32- 

Methods,  changes  of,  in  universi- 
ties and  colleges,  203-205. 


Index 


407 


Michigan,  University  of,  propor- 
tion of  college  students  in,  8. 

Ministry,  falling  off  in  candidates 
for,  91,  92. 

Moralist,  point  of  view  of  ,  144,  145. 

Motto,  of  reorganized  college,  225- 
230;  must  select  one  for  all  in- 
stitutions, 325;  importance  of 
football,  326;  growth  of  foot- 
ball not  accidental,  326,  327; 
football  investment  of  colleges, 
327,  328;  "Team  work,  hard 
work  and  good  work,"  what 
it  means  in  the  world,  in  foot- 
ball and  college,  328-330; 
must  be  enforced  by  adminis- 
trative department,  329,  330; 
of  college  administrative  de- 
partment, 297. 

Mouse,  story  of,  270,  271. 

Municipal  corporations,  colleges 
are  quasi,  36-40;  ownership, 


Names  of  colleges  and  universities, 

why  not  used  herein,  u. 
New  York  City,  presidents  of  in- 

surance companies  and  banks 

in,  317,  318. 
Nonfraternity,  colleges,  conditions 

in,  105,  106;   members,    105- 

114,  310. 
Nursing,  trained,  relation  to  medi- 

cine, 30,  31. 

Oberlin,  financial  system  in,  340. 
Omaha,  driving  sheep  to,  253. 

Panhellenism,  104. 

Parable  of  the  Sower  and  the  Seed, 
66-68. 

Parents,  should  investigate  student- 
life  conditions,  121,  122;  in- 
terest of,  in  student  life,  158; 
should  contribute  to  adminis- 
tration cost,  304-306;  should 
study  college  home,  352;  pow- 
er of,  in  reorganizing  colleges, 

373- 
Park,  Professor,  358,  359. 


Peabody,  Endicott,  94. 

Pedagogical  department,  in  reor- 
ganized college,  341-347;  must 
improve  teachers  and  teaching, 
341,  342;  must  put  premium 
on  fine  teaching  capacity,  342 ; 
must  reward  and  promote 
good  teachers,  342,  343;  award 
its  own  honors,  343,  344;  and 
guard  star  teachers,  344;  ped- 
agogy must  assert  itself,  344, 
345;  and  learn  college  motto, 
346,  347.  See  Pedagogy. 

Pedagogy,  college,  has  abandoned 
many  functions,  35,  36;  at 
present  poor,  23-26;  story  of 
law  student,  23,  24;  no  coach- 
ing as  with  fraternities  and 
athletics,  24,  25;  criticism  by 
Flexner,  25;  should  be  pure 
and  simple,  29;  overdevelop- 
ment of  forces  of,  149-151; 
real  position  of,  158,  159;  does 
not  use  forms,  blanks,  prece- 
dents and  accounting,  230- 
234;  difficulties  arising  there- 
from, 231-234;  responsible  for 
the  college  waste  heap,  260- 
265;  why  it  cannot  handle  col- 
lege administration,  299-303; 
and  pedagogical  methods,  169- 
172.  See  Colleges,  Pedagogical 
Department,  Teacher. 

Pennsylvania  lines,  189. 

Personal  habits,  to  be  reached  by 
college  homes,  81,  82. 

Phi  Beta  Kappa,  150. 

Physical  culture,  how  changed, 
280,  281. 

Physical  education  in  college,  ob- 
jects of,  83-87. 

Physical  examinations,  compul- 
sory, 310. 

Power  of  a  man,  88,  89. 

Precedents,  use  of,  223-227.  See 
Blank  Forms. 

Preceptorial  system  at  Princeton, 
207. 

Preparatory  schools,  fraternities  in, 
117;  vices  in,  133. 


408 


Index 


President,  in  the  reorganized  col- 
lege, executive  head,  313;  du- 
ties and  functions  as  such,  313- 
321;  in  earlier  colleges,  314; 
how  he  will  help  college  per- 
form its  duty,  316,  317;  will 
bring  things  to  pass,  317; 
must  be  executive  rather  than 
technical  head,  317,  318;  ex- 
amples from  New  York  insur- 
ance companies  and  banks, 
317, 318;  must  have  good  cabi- 
net, 318,  319;  must  regard  his 
health,  320;  must  have  no  di- 
vided responsibility,  318-321; 
his  training  and  duties,  362, 

363- 

Price  lists,  uniform,  291. 

Primary  unit  of  reorganized  college, 
185-199. 

Princeton,  size  in  1850,  30;  pre- 
ceptorial system  at,  207. 

Professions,  learned,  how  they 
have  changed,  240-244. 

Public  schools,  expenditures  for, 
53-57;  now  educate  most  of 
college  students,  55,  56. 

Publicity,  bureau  of,  in  the  reor- 
ganized college,  280-288;  how 
colleges  have  advertised  here- 
tofore, 280,  281;  story  of  re- 
formatory, 281,  282;  scope  and 
work  of,  283-288;  will  promote 
college  economy,  286-288; 
how  colleges  have  avoided, 

286,  287;  urged  upon  colleges, 

287,  288;  duties  of,  358. 

Railroads,  early  turnpike,  38,  30; 
how  chartered  and  consoli- 
dated, 38-40;  enforce  total  ab- 
stinence, 134;  growth  of  ad- 
ministrative departments  of, 
206;  construction  foremen  of, 
206,  207;  accounts  and  an- 
nual reports  of,  227-234,  263- 
265;  how  standardized,  289, 
290. 

Records,  use  of,  in  athletics,  225, 
226. 


Recreation,  important  in  college 
athletics,  85,  86. 

Reformatory,  atmosphere  of,  how 
changed,  281,  282. 

Reserve  funds,  188-194. 

Reorganization,  of  colleges,  from 
what  standpoint  to  be  consid- 
ered, 3,  4;  on  usual  lines  of 
business  and  corporate  af- 
fairs, 4,  5;  complicated  by 
high  schools  and  technical 
schools,  9;  need  of,  admitted, 
12;  needed  because  of  failure 
to  organize  and  coordinate  all 
departments,  13;  demanded, 
140,  142-145;  what  it  implies, 
363;  first  essential  of,  185,  186; 
teacher,  primary  unit,  186, 
187;  must  follow  factory  prac- 
tice, 187,  1 88;  importance  of 
keeping  plant  in  order,  188- 
192;  sinking,  depreciation  and 
other  reserve  funds,  189,  194; 
how  plant  to  be  conserved, 
190-192;  overtaxing  teachers, 
190-194;  increase  of  students, 
191,  192;  decrease  of  average 
income,  192,  193;  strain  on 
faculty,  190-194;  disadvan- 
tages of  college  professors,  196- 
199;  must  use  blank  forms  and 
precedents,  223-234;  study  and 
care  of  college  plant,  235-239; 
must  study  college  field,  240- 
244;  studying  the  college 
waste  heap,  258-265;  exam- 
inations, 266-269;  discipline, 
270-274;  waiting  list,  275- 
279;  advertising  and  publicity, 
280-288;  standardization  and 
uniformity,  289-296;  further 
suggestions  as  to  administra- 
tive department,  297-306;  re- 
lation of  administration  to 
student  life,  307-312;  the 
president,  313-321;  motto  and 
ideal,  325-330;  resume";  key- 
note of,  33 1-366.  See  Colleges. 

Reorganizer,  point  of  view  of,  139, 
140,  144,  145. 


Index 


409 


Rivalry  between  and  within  insti- 
tutions, how  promoted,  255. 

Scholarliness,    its    meaning,    150, 

151,  157-162. 
Scholarship,  what  it  means,  149, 1 50, 

157-162.  See  Marking  System. 
Schurman,  President,  107. 
Sciences,  how  to  be  studied,  178, 

179. 

Sheep,  driving,  to  Omaha,  253. 
Single-entry  bookkeeping,  215-222. 
Sleeping  sickness,  167. 
Social  evil.     See  College  Vices. 
Soft  culture  courses,  251,  328,  334- 

Sower  and  the  Seed,  Parable  of, 
66-68. 

Standard  Oil  Company,  illustra- 
tions from,  172,  213,  258. 

Standardization,  of  athletic  rules 
and  records,  255;  of  railroad 
gauge,  289;  and  other  equip- 
ment and  methods,  289-291; 
uniform  price  list  and  mechan- 
ical details,  good  effects  there- 
of, 291,  292;  evil  effects  from 
lack  of,  in  colleges,  292;  lack 
of,  in  colleges  illustrated,  292- 
294;  how  brought  about,  294- 
296.  See  Uniformity. 

State,  relation  of  the  college  to,  51- 
60;  duties  of  college  toward,  89, 
140-145;  cannot  assume  col- 
lege functions,  143;  conditions 
in  ideal,  147,  148;  colleges 
should  train  citizens  of,  148, 
149;  embryo  citizens  of,  154, 
155;  citizenship  great  object 
of  college,  157;  leaders  are 
from  college  graduates,  161; 
improved  conditions  from 
standardization  in  colleges, 
294-296;  rights  of,  as  to  ped- 
agogical department,  302;  du- 
ties of  college  to,  kept  in  view 
by  president,  313-321.  See 
Citizen,  Student  Government. 

State  aid  to  colleges,  55,  295,  354, 
355,  373- 


State  universities,  growing  faster 
than  private  institutions,  8,  9; 
how  cost  of  administration  to 
be  paid,  304. 

Statistics,  bureau  of,  354,  355. 

Student  activities,  what  are,  64,  65. 
See  College  Community  Life. 

Student  citizen,  rights  of,  274.  See 
Citizen,  Citizenship. 

Student  government,  growth  of,  50; 
should  train  for  citizenship, 
75-7  7»  81-83;  wrong  view  of, 
76,  77;  can  be  made  success- 
ful, 77,  78;  Columbia's  experi- 
ment in,  77,  380;  Amherst's 
honor  system,  78-80;  statistics 
as  to,  80,  81.  See  Citizen. 

Student  life  department,  must  be 
developed,  not  carried,  35,  36; 
comprises  ninety  per  cent  of 
student's  time,  27,  28;  value 
of  home  factors  in,  28,  29; 
importance  of,  146-162;  reme- 
dying evils  of,  146;  directly  af- 
fects future  citizenship,  148- 
162;  predominance  of  college 
community  and  home  life 
forces,  149-162;  overdevelop- 
ment of  college  pedagogy, 
community  or  home  life,  149— 
154;  scholarliness,  150,  151; 
value  in  training  future  citi- 
zen, 151-153;  danger  of  not 
regulating,  153,  154;  running 
wild,  155,  156;  citizenship, 
156-162;  citizenship,  chief 
aim  of,  156,  157;  importance 
of,  in  eyes  of  students  and 
parents,  158,  159;  requires 
good  administration,  159,  160; 
college  temptations,  160,  161; 
trains  leaders,  161,  162;  quite 
outside  of  pure  pedagogy,  162; 
how  misunderstood,  328;  is 
dealing  with  picked  young 
men,  348;  politics  in,  348,  349; 
college  should  study  its  own 
problems,  349;  duties  of  fra- 
ternities, 349-352;  competi- 
tion in,  350-352;  the  college 


4io 


Index 


Student  life  department — Cont. 
barracks,  350,  351:  college 
home-making,  351,  352;  func- 
tions of,  351.  See  Colleges, 
College  Community  Life,  Fra- 
ternities, Intercollegiate  Ath- 
letics, Student  Government. 

Surety  bonds,  what  required  to  get, 
138- 

Tabernacle,  lecture  by  college 
president  upon,  51,  52. 

Taft,  William  H.,  351. 

Teacher,  how  must  be  regarded  in 
college,  341-347.  See  Peda- 
gogical Department,  Peda- 
gogy. New  primary  unit,  185- 
199;  is  part  of  college  plant, 
1 86;  easily  goes  stale,  186,  187; 
•  needs  good  factory  practice, 
187-191;  is  of  primary  impor- 
tance, 188-194;  how  to  be 
conserved,  189-194;  waste  of, 
at  present,  191-194;  over- 
worked, 100-194;  should  be 
better  rewarded,  193,  194; 
under  German  system,  194, 
195;  in  earlier  colleges,  195, 
196;  assistant,  196, 197;  should 
be  kept  at  highest  efficiency, 
198;  direct  power  of,  upon 
student,  359-362;  teaching, 
what  it  is,  181,  182.  See  Ped- 
agogy. 

Team  work,  hard  work  and  good 
work,  326-330,  339,  346,  347, 

352»  3°2- 

Technical  schools,  complicate  re- 
organization, 9. 

Temptations  of  college,  160,  161. 

Theology,  changes  in,  51,  52. 

Thwing,  Charles  F.,  College  Ad- 
ministration, 27. 

Trade  unions,  301,  302,  345,  346. 

Training  for  citizenship,  how  words 
used  herein,  73.  See  Citizen. 

Trustees,  board  of,  duties  of,  316, 
363- 

Undesirable  citizen,  71-73. 
Uniformity,  lack  of,  complications 


Uniformity — Cont. 

from,  7,  io,  n,  219,  220;  as 
to  prevalence  of  college  vices, 
121,  122. 

United  States  Department  of  Edu- 
cation, 263-265. 

United  States  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  228—234,  263- 
265. 

United  States  Steel  Corporation,  il- 
lustrations from,  172, 179, 189. 

Units,  different  kinds  of,  under 
single-  and  double-entry  book- 
keeping, 217-222;  marking 
system  as,  218;  colleges  must 
find  new,  218,  219. 

University,  how  word  is  used  here- 
in, io ;  shifting  of  center  of,  7, 
8;  should  be  leader,  17-19;  its 
dudes  to  state,  students  and 
officers,  18,  19;  and  college, 
distinction  between,  6-8,  377; 
no  sympathy  between  depart- 
ments of,  203;  has  grown  in  a 
casual  way,  203,  204;  new 
form  of,  367-373.  See  Col- 
leges. 

Waiting  list  in  the  reorganized  col- 
lege, 275-279. 

Waste,  from  lack  of  administration, 
205;  unnecessary,  in  prepara- 
tory schools,  244.  See  Col- 
lege Waste  Heap. 

Waste  pile.  See  College  Waste 
Heap. 

Water  Street  Mission,  138. 

Wealth  and  power  of  colleges,  37. 

Wheelock,  President,  of  Dart- 
mouth, 182,  183. 

Williams,  students  in,  from  other 
states,  55,  56. 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  115. 

Who's  Wrho  in  America,  161. 

Yale,  why  founded,  45;  story  of 
James  Hadley,  245,  246;  ear- 
lier presidents  of,  314,  315. 

Young   Men'-    Christian    A~ 

tion,  88;  connection  with  col- 
lege home,  93. 


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